Member Article

How many devices are connected to your network?

The way in which we connect to and use the Internet is constantly evolving and over the past 12 months we have seen some exciting developments.

Tablet PCs such as the iPad, Microsoft Surface and various Android devices have become very popular and most manufacturers have started to develop their own versions which increasingly offer more advanced features.

Internet-based services such as cloud computing, hosted email systems and voice over IP have also evolved at a very fast rate and as such, there are now many more things which we can achieve online.

All these advancements mean employees are increasingly more capable of connecting to your office network more easily and with a much wider range of devices.

Bring Your Own Device (or BYOD) presents a challenge from a security point of view as businesses owners and managers still need to maintain the security and integrity of their network.

We cannot simply rely on Windows passwords and domain security as often these mobile devices do not even run Microsoft products and therefore do not fully integrate into traditional security structures or policies. Do you know how many of your employees personal devices are connected to your network?

Part of the solution is to employ a perimeter security device which installs in line with your main Internet router. This ensures that any traffic which flows in or out of your business can be monitored and where appropriate, controlled.

There are resources and software available which can seamlessly integrate with your network and provide you with a wide range of features including:

• Web Filtering (Restrict or just log which websites are available to groups of users)
• SPAM Filtering (Reduce the amount of junk emails which are received by up to 90%)
• Virus Filtering (Scan and clean viruses from messages before they enter your network)
• Application Control (Gives to ability to block or restrict certain applications such as Facebook or instant messaging etc.) • Spyware + Ad Blocker (Stops popups and blocks spyware from being installed)
• Report Generation (Find out which staff use the Internet the most and for what reason)
• User-based policies (Where certain groups are more heavily restricted than others)
• Network segregation (Where users personal devices are on a completely separate network outside your normal corporate network).

When you compare the costs of these solutions with that of lost time and productivity from your employees, the benefits are clear.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Agile Group .