The Internet provides an open breeding ground for undercover miscreants and professional and petty criminals, resulting in a high risk of intrusion or fraud for every connected business. Content filtering, as one specific component of internet security, keeps web surfing safe for the users by guarding them against viruses and unwanted content. It allows businesses to securely monitor their network's Internet access to ensure compliance and improve productivity.

Veritech Corporation CEO Livio Mazzon believes that although content filtering is an immediate and urgent requirement in society, many businesses still don’t consider it as a real business necessity.

“Many owners and managers don’t think Website content filtering is important. Web surfing during work time seems to be a small issue and content filtering not that necessary, maybe even draconian.  But what they need to understand is that by not having content filtering, a business is wasting thousands of hours in staff time each year, and consequently thousands of dollars a year in unproductive wages” stated Mr Mazzon.

Many business owners and managers would be quite surprised at how much NOT filtering website content is costing them. Without an Internet content filter, businesses are letting their employees waste time surfing for things that have nothing to do with the business.

The math builds up quickly.  Even for a small business with minimal employees, even just 15 minutes each day of non work related web surfing adds up to thousands of dollars per year.  This is the last thing a small business needs to worry about.

“As a small business owner myself, I understand that as managers we want to trust our staff and believe that web surfing is not a major issue. But, when you read statistics that tell you 30-40% of internet use in the workplace is not related to business (IDC Research) and 37% of workers surf the web constantly whilst they are at work (Vault.com) it’s time to make some smart business decisions” added Mr Mazzon.

There are many solutions in the marketplace to address this common concern.  However, selection is convoluted by the vast breadth of choices.  Small businesses (who have better things to do with their time and money), should focus on price, value-for-money, ease-of-configuration, and versatility in the product.   One such product which ticks all these boxes is the open-source based Endian Unified Threat Management (UTM) system.

Endian UTMs are purpose built content-filtering appliances.  They can control web surfing by username, position, computer, the time of day, site addresses, site content, and a myriad of other selectable options.  This provides a business the choice of how much to restrict, or allow staff web surfing – during business hours or afterwards.

The Endian UTM system offers progressive, open-source based security features at a price point that is affordable for small-medium sized businesses. In fact, it provides a number of other features as part of its UTM function.

The Endian content filter keeps Web surfing safe for your workers, and guards them against viruses and unwanted content such as violence, pornography or illegal software. It allows businesses to securely monitor their network's Internet access to ensure compliance and improve productivity.

“Useful in schools or wherever underage users are involved, this content filter module prohibits access to questionable sites and is effortlessly configurable via Endian's Web Administration Console. It can also be used by those companies that don't want their employees to surf any ambiguous sites; this provides compliance and protects your business against liability” commented Mr Mazzon.

For details on Endian web security www.endian.com

For details on Veritech Corporation visit www.veritechcorp.com.au