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Blocking Spyware
Guide / Case Study
Organization:
City of Cincinnati
Industry:
Government
Websense Integration:
Network Appliance NetCache
CITY OF CINCINNATI USES WEBSENSE SOFTWARE TO REDUCE SPYWARE THREATS
Located along the mid-shoreline of the 981-mile long Ohio
River, the City of Cincinnati is 77.2 square miles and home to approximately 365,000 residents. With a diverse and strong economy, Cincinnati is headquarters to many national and international companies such as The
Kroger Company, Chiquita Brands International, Procter & Gamble Company and more. In addition, the city has come to be known as a world leader in the production of machine tools, playing cards, soaps, and
detergents.
With more than 5,000 employees, half of which have access to the internet, the City of Cincinnati chose to install Websense software to help improve employee productivity, save network bandwidth,
reduce exposure to legal liability and minimize the risk of security threats from spyware, malicious mobile code, phishing and other frauds.
"Websense is very convenient for monitoring and blocking inappropriate
sites," says Ralph Renneker, IT Director for the City of Cincinnati. They utilize Websense Enterprise for its filtering capabilities to keep inappropriate material from entering the workplace. To provide a higher
level of protection from web-based threats, the City also chose to install all three Websense Premium Groups™: Productivity PG™, Bandwidth PG™ and Security PG™. "When we first installed the
Websense Premium Groups, the amount of browse time on our network dropped about 4,000 hours per week," says Renneker.
Productivity PG allows them to manage access to advertisements, message boards,
freeware/software downloads, online brokerage & trading, instant messaging, and pay-to-surf sites. Blocking distracting banner advertisements and other categories contributes to increased employee productivity.
"Bandwidth PG allows us to stop streaming content and save network bandwidth for business critical issues," said Barker. Bandwidth PG manages access to bandwidth intensive sites such as streaming media, internet
radio & TV, personal network storage/backup, internet telephony, and peer-to-peer file sharing.
Security PG blocks access to sites associated with spyware, phishing, pharming, keylogging, and malicious mobile
code. The City utilizes Security PG to block access to spyware sites and transmissions to their host sites, preventing the outflow of sensitive data. "One of the top categories we see on our blocked reports is
spyware. It's the most frequently blocked category and we've significantly cut down on the amount of spyware entering our network," said Renneker. They also utilize Security PG for blocking access to phishing sites.
The City uses Websense Enterprise reporting tools to help identify organizational risk levels for productivity, legal liability, security and network bandwidth loss. In addition, the reporting helps them to
detect malicious mobile code, spyware or hacking tools and discover peer-topeer (P2P) file sharing and instant messaging. "We periodically get requests to look at traffic for certain users and it's very helpful to
have good reporting tools when someone wants to know," says Renneker.
Websense Enterprise integrates seamlessly with leading network infrastructure products and offers unequaled flexibility and control.
The City of Cincinnati runs a Network Appliance Netcache and found the Websense integration with NetCache to work seamlessly.
Our company can help you with any of the following Websense Integrations
Blue Coat Systems
Blue Coat Systems Proxy SG Appliance Powered by Websense
Check Point FireWall-1
Cisco PIX
Cisco Wide Area Application (WAE) Appliances Edition
Citrix Presentation Server
Juniper Networks NetScreen
Microsoft ISA Server
Microsoft Proxy Server
Network Appliance NetCache
Squid Proxy
Stratacache
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