IN THIS ISSUE
Social Networking or Social Not-working?
Online Holiday Shopping: Here We Go Again
Greetings,
It's almost the end of the year, which means the holiday season is upon us and the new year will be here soon. With that said, we want to remind you that our current sales specials will end soon. Check them out below and be sure to act soon!
We also want to take this opportunity to extend a warm thank you to all Wavecrest customers. Without you, we would not have been able to develop and continuously improve our products for the past 13 years and for many more to come!
In this issue, we bring you two timely articles. The first briefly discusses the issues with social networking in the workplace. There has been lots of buzz in the news recently about how to deal with social networking use in the workplace, which is why we've taken the time to address this issue in more detail. The second article talks about online holiday shopping in the workplace and the risks and productivity losses involved as a result.
As usual, be sure to check out the tech tip as well. We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!
Best Regards,
The Wavecrest Team
Social Networking or Social Not-working?
Social networking in the workplace is a major dilemma for today´s businesses. Does it help or hurt the organization? Some say it helps by enhancing collaboration among employees, partners and customers. Others say it hurts by draining productivity and bandwidth and creating legal liability and network security risks.
A survey conducted by Nucleus Research showed that 77 percent of workers who have a Facebook account use it during work hours. Of those who do use Facebook at work, 87% said they could not define a clear business reason for accessing the site and some reported using it as much as two hours per day.
So, in the face of all the countervailing views, just what is the best approach to the issue? Options include banning it altogether, using it with no restrictions, and employing it for business purposes only.
The short answer is, "It depends."
That is, for any one organization, the answer really depends on management´s views on a number of issues. Among these are the nature and objectives of the business, organizational culture and managerial style, workforce morale factors, workforce demographics and skills, availability of technological solutions, and the need for external communications.
We are often asked about this issue. So we developed this paper to share our knowledge and views. It explores various aspects of the issue, cites some relevant facts, and provides several recommendations. Our hope is that this information will help organizations that are struggling today with this contemporary and very important issue.
Read the full white paper: Social Networking or Social Not-working?
Online Holiday Shopping: Here We Go Again
It´s that time of year again! The big Christmas shopping spree. As in previous years, the online version ’officially’ started on Cyber Monday — the day after the big T-Day weekend. And now this year they've also added Green Monday (December 7) and Brown Monday (December 14). These are days on which, like Cyber Monday, online retailers put on a full court press to draw in ’surfer-shoppers.’
And the whole circus runs through New Year´s Day.
The volume can be huge and problematical for employers. A survey conducted for ISACA, an association of 86,000 information technology professionals, states in part:
"Employees plan to spend nearly two full working days (14.4 hours) on average shopping online from a work computer this holiday season. One in 10 plans to spend more than 30 hours shopping online at work. Convenience (34%) and boredom (23%) are the biggest motivators."
"... the second annual "Shopping on the Job: Online Holiday Shopping and Workplace Internet Safety" survey found that half of those surveyed plan to holiday shop online using a work computer.
"Dangers of shopping online include viruses, spam and phishing attacks that invade the workplace, resulting in financial losses due to reduced productivity and destruction or compromise of corporate data."
In addition to generating network security and performance issues, online holiday shopping is a huge productivity waster for businesses. When workers are shopping, they´re not ’minding the store.’ Accordingly, this is a good time for all types of organizations to take stock of their Web-use management practices and seek help if needed.
Wavecrest Computing is ready to provide that help.
If you have CyBlock, your product can be set up to block Web access by categories and by hour so employees can access shopping sites on their lunch break or after hours. This approach can help sustain morale while minimizing the risks associated with online shopping. If you have Cyfin, you can monitor employees' Web use to ensure that Web-use policies are followed or that unwanted spyware or malware is not downloaded as a result.
End of Year Sales Specials
Now is your last chance to take advantage of one of the following sales specials. These specials will end on December 31, 2009, so act fast!
Purchase a one-year license and get one extra month! That's a 13-month license for the price of 12!
Interested in a multi-year license?
No problem. For purchasing a 2-year license, you'll get 2 extra months , or get 3 extra months with the purchase of a 3-year license.
New to Wavecrest?
Enjoy the following discounts when you purchase a NEW 2 or 3-year license:
- 20% off a new 2-year license
- 30% off a new 3-year license
Coming Up For Renewal?
In addition to getting the extra months, if you purchase a multi-year renewal license, you'll also get to enjoy the following discounts:
- 15% off a 2-year license
- 20% off a 3-year license
Tech Tip: Reset Your Password
If you ever forget your password and need to reset it back to the default, you can do so by following these simple steps.
- Stop the Cyfin or CyBlock service on your machine.
- Delete the file '..\wc\cf\db\accessAccounts.xml' for Cyfin or '..\wc\cyblock\db\accessAccounts.xml' for CyBlock.
- Restart your Cyfin or CyBlock service.
You should now be able to login to Cyfin or CyBlock with the following credentials:
Login: admin
Password: password
NOTE: By resetting the password, all other Access Accounts will be lost and will have to be created again.
Tech Tip: Safe Search
We recently added a safe search feature in our CyBlock Proxy, CyBlock Appliance and CyBlock ISA products. To force Google, Yahoo and Bing to strictly use Safe Search, enable the Safe Search feature in your CyBlock product at the Advanced Settings - Filter Settings - Safe Search screen. When enabled, the product will reset search engines to "safe search" even if users change their preference in the search engine. This will block Web pages containing explicit sexual content from appearing in search results.
Online Support Forum
Connect with over 3,000 Wavecrest software users worldwide — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — at Wavecrest's online support forum.
Wavecrest's online support forum is a searchable forum of questions and answers related to Wavecrest software. The information is contributed by Wavecrest users and moderated by Wavecrest's technical support staff.
To access the support forum, go to http://forum.wavecrest.net/.
And remember, you can still reach Wavecrest technical support via email at support@wavecrest.net or by phone Monday — Friday between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern Time at 877-442-9346 (toll free in the US and Canada) or 001-321-953-5351(International).
Wavecrest Computing Blog and Twitter
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