Manning use of Internet remotely

By James Ratemo

Bandwidth, the Internet capacity, is a key resource in today's business world but it is also the most abused by employees.

With popularity of social sites growing, employees often spend precious time on the Internet - a fact that eats into loads of manhours a month.

But wandering on the Internet and downloading unnecessary files all costs a fortune by slowing down Internet speed for other ‘genuine users’.

The result of this unregulated access to and use of bandwidth exposes businesses to extra but avoidable connectivity charges.

Through technology, however, this precious resource can be profitably and optimally managed and its use monitored from a single platform.

Cyberoam, a Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution, is one such technology that is changing how online resources can be managed and Internet security assured.

With Cyberoam, it is possible to allocate each user the amount of broadband to use and determine which sites they visit and at which time while in the office.

This software puts in check those employees whose attention resides more on such social sites as Facebook and Twitter rather than the task at hand.

With Cyberoam, one’s employer can watch and track any employee movements while using an organisation’s network. It is also possible for the employer to restrict how much data you can access or download from the Internet.

This kind of Internet management is useful in setups where bandwidth is a key resource shared by many employees in the course of work. It is also useful in environments where employees are allowed access to the Internet during work hours.

Cyber criminals, keen on causing Internet havoc, target malicious files of users who wander through the Internet with adequate safeguards — often the case when employees seek to bypass defined Internet security settings.

Unless users are tracked online, it would be impossible to control use of the bandwidth or intervene whenever there is a cyber threat.

"Using Cyberoam, one can allocate some employees more bandwidth and allow them access to particular websites while restricting others from sites like Facebook," explains Alkeshi Soneji, Manager Business Development, Cyberoam.

One is able to monitor who visited which site and at what time."

As technology gets better and complicated each day, networks are getting prone to internal and external attacks.

Users therefore find themselves vulnerable to Internet threats as they roam the Internet.

Sadly though, most current corporate policies surrounding network security have often neglected the most critical and weak security component; the human factor.

According to cyber security experts, an organisation’s overall security is only as strong as its weakest link – the user.

It is on this basis that Cyberoam, an Internet security solution, is tied together to ensure a one-stop shop for all security and online management concerns of business and individual users alike.

Alkeshi says the security module also helps those with responsibility of monitoring users’ online habits to generate reports on which to draft disciplinary actions for those flouting the rules.

He says Cyberoam enables real time visibility into bandwidth utilisation and can allow blockage of all unwanted sites just from the same platform.

According to Isolutions Associates Managing Director, James Kinyua, Cyberoam UTM appliances integrates multiple security features like Firewall, VPN, Intrusion Prevention System, Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware, Anti-Spam, Web Filtering, Layer 7 Visibility and Control, Bandwidth Management, Multiple Link Management, and more on a single platform.

How it works

Extensible Security Architecture coupled with multi-core processors enables it to offer future-ready security and faster throughput.

With the increasing speed of connectivity, the Internet has emerged as a superhighway that conveys businesses to prosperity but also a source of innumerable risks.

The Cyberoam platform is so elaborate that a user will always move around with own access privileges from one computer to another and there is no danger of one employee using another’s account without permission.

By definition, Cyberoam UTM’s Layer 8 Technology treats user identity the 8th layer or the "human layer" in the network protocol stack.

This allows administrators to uniquely identify users, control Internet activity of these users in the network, and enable policy setting and reporting by username.

All Cyberoam security features can be centrally configured and managed from a single firewall page with complete ease.

Layer 8 binds these security features to create a single, consolidated security unit and enables the administrator to change security policies dynamically while accounting for user movement - joiner, leaver, or rise in hierarchy.

IT teams often-waste time in knowing source of attacks in case of a security breach. However, since Layer 8 offers instant visibility into source of attacks while identifying victims/attackers by username, cyberoam allows proactive remediation of security incidents. This adds speed to security.

"Cyberoam’s content and application filtering feature manages indiscriminate Internet surfing by users through custom policy setting for users and groups, thereby setting access limitations based on time duration and predefined blocked sites across 82+ categories," said Alkeshi.

According to Alkeshi, Cyberoam UTM also has a user, time and role-based bandwidth management approach which prevents users from consuming huge amounts of bandwidth for non-productive surfing and downloads.

Instant Messaging Controls allow administrators to control who can chat with whom over text chat, webcam, file transfer.