People usually get stuck at the point deciding whether or not a Content filter will be right for their business. It sometimes reaches to a tricky point, especially when you are at a manager level post or a small business owner. But the true result lies in itself as a content filtering system helps in improving productivity, security and maintaining cleanliness in offices by filtering irrelevant and inappropriate media, and catching up employees from their own bad impulses and web-browsing habits.
But every coin has two faces, and so do the content filters. If checking deeply the other side, these content filters consist of a negative side too. In the worst-case scenario, the system actually reduces productivity by slowing down internet speeds and inadvertently blocking normal business-related websites which sometimes get blocked due to various reasons that let them fall into these categories. Apart from it managing these tools manually are not that much task as it seems. The reason behind it is that, these tools are configured on the basis of manually adding a lot of privacy terms that involves sites inappropriate to access, monitoring traffic at a regular period of time and maintaining functionality of these tools accordingly to network requirement etc. So basically all of these terms simply refers to the factor that one should first go with all of these points and then only make the decision to adopt Content Filter tools.
Some of the major factor that specify the company-specific factors are - bandwidth usage, prior security incidents related to inappropriate websites, productivity level of the office, and whether anyone has already complained about being exposed to obscene content at the workplace.
Where you Filter?
One of the essential points that always make a trademark is where to exactly set-up the content filter just like as important as how you filter. If one looks over to the old method where a PC based package is set up over to each inpidual PC, but does it look like an efficient method to carry out - exactly a big “NO”. Reason behind is that a little technically gained user can easily bypass these filters and access all of the unit and can also manipulate policies as-well-as other configuration too.
The other one is the Pass-by-method which comprises of a software installed on a separate PC or on server. Such software works as a set of procedural unit that work as a URL blocker; however, it could also be bypassed by routing the request straight through to the firewall. Therefore, one must ensure that all requests are indeed being checked by the designated server.
A major disadvantage of content filtering set up at these locations, is that the worm, Trojan Horse, a malicious packet, or other undesirable content has already entered your network. Thus Firewalls that offers a Packet Inspection technology have the ability to detect and drop packets that occurs at the entry point of the network. Now the real question is what more appropriate place to stop malicious traffic than at the firewall? As there is only one point of entry and exit, so to gain the best result, we must have to place the content filter in the firewall or between the firewall and the rest of the network ensures that all traffic must pass through the content filter before it is allowed in the network.