Archive for the 'Internet Filtering' Category

Special offer in December 2010

Winter holidays are getting closer and closer. Everybody needs to buy presents for family, friends and colleagues, so we, at Cyclope-Series, decided to give you a present too: 30% discount for our employee monitoring and Internet filtering solutions. Save 30% from the normal price if you decide to purchase Cyclope Employee Surveillance Solution or Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy during December 2010.

Save money at the end of the year so you can buy presents to your family, friends and colleagues but don’t forget about your business :) .

Also, we need to announce you that a new version of Cyclope Employee Surveillance Solution is now available. A few features of the new version (5.7) are: Continue reading ‘Special offer in December 2010′

Avoid employee rights violation with workplace policy

Workplace policy is a formal policy created by the management / business owners in order to set clear restrictions, protecting both employees and employers. Workplace policy covers more topics like: rate of pay, discrimination, abuse within workplace, employee rights etc. To avoid misunderstandings and malpractice within the company it is very important to have a clear and complete policy. On the other hand, employees should read these policies carefully because sometimes these policies can be sneaky and if there is something that looks suspicious, they should ask for more details.

Now, in regard to employee monitoring, this issue should definitely have a complete section into the workplace policy. Continue reading ‘Avoid employee rights violation with workplace policy’

Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy – new version available for download

As I announced in a previously post, this week we are making public the latest version of Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy, 4.0 build 300.
The application has been technically improved but there were also some improvements regarding the design and the interface. Continue reading ‘Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy – new version available for download’

Final test for latest version of Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy

This week we made an internal release for the latest version of Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy, version 4.0 build 300 in order to test the application. This version is supposed to be made public at the beginning of the next week.

Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy version 4.0 build 300 has both technical and feature improvements: Continue reading ‘Final test for latest version of Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy’

Create the Internet Usage Policy within your company with version 4.0 of Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy

Version 4.0 of Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy has just been released. The new version comes both with a new user interface and new reports. One of them is the Overview report added to the statistics section.

At the first run, the overview section will guide the application manager to client configuration, to define the filtering policy and to check statistics. On the normal usage of the application, the overview section? aims to provide application?s manger summary? statistics like? the? number? of? users? currently? using? the? product,? the total amount of traffic that was recorded for the current day and the breaking rules attempts.

Continue reading ‘Create the Internet Usage Policy within your company with version 4.0 of Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy’

55% increase in illegal downloads at work

Illegal software and music downloads at work have increased by 55% in the past three months. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by a web security firm that bases on data gathered from more than 100 countries and millions of employees.

This numbers shows us that employees seem not to understand the risks they expose the company to, when they illegally download software and music at work. Employees must understand that they cannot use the company computer and network in the same way they use their home computer. It only takes one person to download an infected file and all the company network is exposed to huge security risks. Not to mention the risk for legal liabilities.

Although the security risks of downloading unlicensed music and software have been discussed many times, the employees? awareness in this domain still appears to be very low. Considering these statistics, we can conclude that employee education should be a top priority for businesses in 2010.


9 tips to stop being a workaholic

Work and work

A few months ago we have discussed about the signs of a workaholic. A list of 10 signs was provided in order for everybody to check and review their work addiction. Now, that we have discovered ourselves and we have learned that being a workaholic is not the greatest method to get the best of our life, it?s time to get to action. Here are some tips that will help everybody to stop being work addicted:

  1. Learn to prioritize tasks. Admit it that not all the tasks have the same importance and not all of them are the most urgent. There are tasks that can be done tomorrow too and nobody will be affected by this.
  2. Schedule your work day and stop working after a certain hour (5 or 6 p.m. for example). Inform everybody you are in contact with at work about this and ask them not to call you after this time. Learn to leave the office once the clock hits this time. You?re done for the day and the rest can wait until tomorrow. Continue reading ’9 tips to stop being a workaholic’

Cyclope Internet Filtering 3.0 – improved version

The latest major release of Cyclope Internet Filter software was in September 2008, but this does not means that there were no improvements made to the product meanwhile. Our developers worked constantly and they provided during this period more build versions improving functionalities and filtering system.

The latest improvements were finished a week ago. The most important aspect was related to system resource usage, providing reasonable memory / CPU usage for complex networks allowing a larger number of users to be monitored. Regarding the filtering option, the Block URL filter has been separated in Black List and White List features providing in this way a better usability.
Other improvements were made for the reporting and registration feature and I will briefly mention them below:

- the aggregated reporting feature has been enhanced providing new reporting time frames
- the registration feature has been enhanced providing transparent proxy features subsequent to product expiration

There were also other bug fixing activities and now we hope that our application will provide better internet filtering. Although, we encourage you to test the application and let us know your feedback because based on your requirements we can improve new versions.


Why You Should Block Certain File Downloads at Work

downloadBusinesses that use internet filtering software typically have the option of blocking certain file extensions from being downloaded. This is a smart move for businesses to make because it serves to protect the company?s computers from harm. Employees are often prone to downloading files that may be unsafe because of the fact that the computer isn?t their personal computer and so they don?t give much consideration to the threat that such downloads may cause. The potential threats include computer viruses, compromised security and websites that are not appropriate for work.

A main reason that you may want to block certain file downloads is because of the number of viruses that are put on employee computers when they download things that they weren?t supposed to download. Repairing these computers to get rid of the virus can be expensive whether the repairs are done in-house (and cost the time of your tech team) or out of the office (and cost a lot of money). By blocking downloads of file extensions that commonly have viruses, you can limit the amount of trouble that you have on your computers.

An even bigger concern that businesses may have is the threat of a security breach on the computers. Continue reading ‘Why You Should Block Certain File Downloads at Work’

Free licenses for non-profit organizations

“The mission of Grassroots.org is to serve as a catalyst for positive social change by leveraging modern technologies and best business practices. Grassroots.org provides nonprofit organizations with free valuable technologies and resources to increase their efficiency and productivity.” (GrassRoots.org)

banner_grassroots1

At this moment the GrassRoots has over 1.300 active members all over US and Canada and it?s increasing continuously. Their focus is to provide free technologies and services for nonprofit organizations in order to help them achieve, sustain, and expand a strong web presence.

We have teemed up with them and become ?In-kind Supporters?, providing services to their clients, free of charge. We are offering 15 users licenses both for the Internet filtering and for the employee monitoring solutions.
As they said, when we donate to Grassroots.org, we “help invest in over 1,300 organizations that are making change all around the globe“.