It is no surprise to anyone that the threats to the cyber security of companies are growing. As well as the complexity of the attacks and the damage caused, it has increased. Even the specific law for personal data processing, LGPD , is used as a persuasive when extorting money from companies that had leaked data.
In addition, the productivity factor of the work team, being in person or remote, is still much discussed among managers and IT professionals responsible for the implementation of team control and focus tools.
So what would be the ideal answer to the question: Blocking websites is still important in 2021? The answer is yes! For several reasons you will see below in this article.
How does website lock work in the company?
Before understanding the reasons and benefits of using an Internet access management tool in the company, it is important to understand how this process works.
There are several tools aimed at blocking websites considered harmful or outside the work scope, aimed at companies and corporations. Among the most common on the market are Cisco Umbrella (OpenDNS), Lumiun Box , DNS Filter , Fortinet Fortigate and PFSense .
However, solutions differ a lot from each other, and do not always adapt to all diversity found in the business environment.
What is common among them is the ability to manage requests for access to websites considered harmful or not part of the work done by the team in the business environment.
When there is an Internet access policy that is effective and consistent with the needs of the company, all attempts to access sites classified as harmful, are automatically blocked by the lock tool. Rules and settings are usually made on a cloud platform, and can be applied to groups, sectors or individually by equipment.
The benefits of using such a solution go far beyond the simple “lock” of websites, as you can see in the next lines.
Why block websites in the company in 2021?
As we mentioned earlier, DNS query filtering technology is more than just a method for filtering content on the web. It serves as a shield for cyber threats (increasingly developed) and also in the focus of the team that consequently increases the results of the work.
New Digital Threats
The annual check -point report shows that 97% of all companies in the world suffered at least one malware offensive in 2020. In addition, the average amount charged for extortions almost doubled from the previous year.
The strategies used by hackers also evolved, such as the famous phishing blow, which were normally sent emails containing malicious links, and when opened, they requested access passwords and confidential data. Knowing users' awareness of unknown links in emails, criminals are using an attachment in HTML, where the link does not appear and still forces the browser to open the site in the same window.
Another cheat used by the cybercrime is the sending of SMS to phishing blows, so called " Smissioning ", which is the combination of "SMS" and "phishing". In the attack, criminals have realized that SMS makes the threat more effective as most people do not know fraud through this channel, and users have less care on mobile devices.
Another evolution that deserves attention is that of ransomware attack, where the criminal gets access to the company's network, encrypts the files and then requests the payment of data redemption. Updated for its 2.0 version, the attack now in addition to keeping devices and systems hostage, sucking the confidential data of the equipment and threatening to release it on the internet if the ransom is not paid.
In a partial survey of the last 6 months , it showed that a thousand organizations were affected by ransomware each week in the second quarter of 2021, and the second quarter is still half. The numbers show that this kind of blow is becoming increasingly frequent around the world.
A tool focused on DNS filtering can be a great solution in combating digital threats. Block access to malicious websites on the DNS layer, which is the edge of the network, eliminates much of the company's safety problems.
Behavior changes in 2020 and 2021
Last year, with Covid-19, 13 million people started buying over the internet in Brazil. This sales channel has won new consumers, raising the total of customers online over 2019 by almost 30%.
Cell phone purchases also fired and the device began to represent 55.1% of the total, the equivalent of R $ 45.9 billion.
Circulation restriction and closing measures during pandemic stores were the main factors for the growth of shopping on websites.
In addition, the number of purchases on social networks also increased by 2020, from 22% to 34%, predicting a much higher increase by 2021.
That is, the population have used the mobile phone more to make their purchases, increasing the hours of daily use of the device, including during work, making it increasingly managers and IT professionals, seek ways to reduce improper access or cause deviation from focus by employees.
Reduction of work teams
We must also pay attention to employee numbers in companies. According to IBGE , the unemployment rate grew almost 14% in 2020, reaching 13.9 million unemployed in the country. This number is due to the need to reduce teams and falls in the revenue of physical stores.
But what relationship is unemployment in the country has the need to block sites in the business environment? It is related to productivity!
With smaller teams and revenues, managers are looking for more productive and engaged employees, causing each employee to produce as much as possible and waste as little time as possible in activities other than the scope of work.
Considering changes in the economic scenario, distancing and also behavioral in the use of the internet, especially in mobile by the population, it is visible to use internet access control tools in the company, reducing access to social networks and shopping sites, for example, optimizing employee productivity.
Work Team Productivity
In addition to the company's internet security, blocking websites in the company reflects on the productivity of the team.
With the economy weakened due to pandemic, generating more results from the teams on the internet has become a priority in companies.
Employees spend on average only 43% of the time of work week in office they were hired to do. In addition, they are interrupted on average 14 times a day by internet tools, such as WhatsApp and social networks.
Thus data, prove that team productivity is affected by misuse of the internet. Therefore, using a tool to block websites outside the scope of work, meets the desire for growth and productivity of the company, improving processes, time to perform tasks and in some cases up to quality in the tasks performed.
Cost reduction
With the network and internet access protected from threats, it is avoided slow problems and failures on the company's devices, usually caused by the installation of malware from access to harmful websites. Problems are frequent in the business environment, and generate costs not only of the time of the responsible professional, but also for the maintenance and unavailability of the device while the repair is done.
In addition to the cost of maintenance, the performance of systems and computers can also be compromised, after all, virus -infected devices make excessive network use, causing slowness.
Is it still important to block websites in the company?
Many IT managers and professionals wonder if it is still important to block access to the websites in the company. And yes, it's still important .
As we have seen earlier, employees are usually responsible for clicks and access to sites considered harmful, compromising company data, and redemption costs of this data in cases of leakage.
In addition, the productivity and availability of the company's network is directly related to employees' access to the internet, and may compromise revenues in cases where the use of the internet is done incorrectly.
As we have already talked about other articles here on the blog, implementing an Internet access policy and also providing training for safe and conscious use on the company's internet, can help prevent these problems in some cases, but will not remedy 100% of damage.
Therefore, if you are looking for protection on the company's internet and also optimizing productivity and performance of the work team that uses the internet, consider using an internet access blocking solution.
Until later!
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