Wavecrest Computing — Internet Filtering and Reporting Products

Glossary of Terms

Frequently used terms in CyBlock ISA.

Abuse. A level of Web use in a designated content category that is unacceptable to the customer's organization. Automatic abuse-detection is an optional feature within this product's reporting system. It is based on customer-specified criteria, i.e., a specified number of visits in a 24-hour period. If abuse-detection is chosen, the customer decides which categories to monitor and the levels (thresholds) at which usage becomes abusive. (See also Abuse Thresholds)

Abuse Thresholds. The levels at which Web usage becomes abusive within designated categories. Abuse Thresholds are set by the customer's organization on the basis of its Web access policy or guidelines. The numeric threshold refers to a specified number of visits allowable within a 24-hour day. Refer to Visit and Hit definitions to get a better understanding.

Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). A customer's set of guidelines and restrictions governing employees' access to the Internet and/or organizational intranets and extranets.

Access Accounts. Accounts that grant access to the product for functional or administrative purposes. Two types of accounts are available: Administrator and Operator. Administrators have full access to all functional and administrative features. Operators can only create and retrieve reports.

Attributes. Configurable "settings" and/or "features" within the product that perform specific web policy support and report preference functions. (See also Web Policy Support and Report Preferences)

Category. A set of URLs with similar content. Examples include shopping, sports, pornography, entertainment, financial, etc.

Classification. An "appropriateness" rating assigned to a category, i.e., Acceptable, Unacceptable or Neutral. Customers specify the classifications.

Denied. A term that refers to a failed attempt to access a Web site. For the most part this occurs because the user is not authorized to access the site, i.e., his access has been “blocked.” However, a “denied” indication can also be caused by technical anomalies, e.g., “page not found by server,” etc.

Domain. A “name” that is part of a URL (Web page address). More readable and memorable than a numerical address. An example is www.amazon.com.

Download Time. Approximate or average time for a Web page to load in the browser, i.e., the time span between when a user clicks on a hyperlink and the page loads in the browser. As used in this product's reports, Download Time is derived by multiplying (a) the smallest average amount of time required to download a typical Web page by (b) the number of visits. Please note that it is not possible to calculate the amount of time a user was on-line or viewing a particular page. Our Download Time approach is intended to indicate the minimum amount of time the user was on the Web. This should not be the primary data point on which to establish abuse. We suggest you use the visit count (total visits); this is a more accurate indicator of abuse. (See definition of Visit for more detail.)

NOTE: The default used in the product for Download Time is set to 3 seconds. This can be changed if desired. Please contact Wavecrest Support for details.

Enterprise. A term that denotes the total set of users covered by this product. If the total set is organized by the customer into a hierarchy of groups for more segmented or differentiated coverage, the term “enterprise” refers to the top level of the hierarchy.

Group. A collection of users who share a common characteristic. In one example, the users in a group all belong to a particular department of an organization or company. The department name or number is the common characteristic. Groups can be based on a number of different characteristics, such as: organizational assignment, work location, job classification, mission or project assignment, etc. A "group" can consist of many users, or it can consist of only one user. In this product, groups are assigned names for identification purposes; if the group is a single user, his or her ID is the group name.

NOTE: Any group created in the product must contain at least one user. If it does not, the group will not appear the next time the product is opened.

Hit. A typical Web page is made up of many different elements (i.e., text, images, banner ads, audio, flash, etc.). When you click on a URL and a Web page is being loaded in your browser, each of those elements is downloaded separately. As a result, clicking on a single URL can generate multiple logfile entries, one for each element downloaded. Each of these “downloads” represents a “hit.” On average, 70% of all hits are elements downloaded as a result of a user clicking on a hyperlink. Put another way, a hit count represents all elements downloaded during a user’s session, but this has no direct correlation to the number of Web pages the user actually requested or visited. To present the most accurate representation of the level of human Web-use activity, this product distinguishes extraneous hits from actual clicks, i.e., visits. (Please refer to the definition of Visit for more information on this subject)

ID. A login name or IP address that this product uses to identify users.

Import Data. As used in current versions of this product and its documentation, the term Import Data refers to the product's optional-use "internal database" which, when enabled, can automatically retrieve and store logfile information in a more compressed and organized format. The chief advantage of this approach is greatly reduced report-generation time, compared to report-generation processes that read logfiles directly.

LDAP. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). An interoperability standard for deploying directory-based applications and solutions. As used in this product and its documentation, the term LDAP generally refers to the product's ability to import user ID information automatically and manually from an LDAP-based directory, e.g., Microsoft's Active Directory (AD).

List. Wavecrest URL List. Also sometimes referred to as a “control list,” the Wavecrest URL list is an updatable categorized database of Web site URLs that is built into Wavecrest products. The product compares the URLs of visit attempts with the URLs in the list in order to categorize actual or attempted visits to Web sites. (See definition of Category)

Operator. A product user that has been granted a limited-access Operator account. Operators can create and retrieve Web-use reports but they cannot make administrative setup or configuration changes. Setup and configuration functions are limited to individuals that have been granted Administrator accounts.

Policy Settings. Modifiable settings that govern how this product is applied to users or groups of users and how it displays information in reports. Examples of these settings include: Category Classification, Abuse Thresholds, Display Categories, and Maximum IDs. Another example of a Policy Setting is the Block Categories setting in our filtering products. See also Report Preferences.

Report Preferences. Several customizable attributes within the product that help to streamline reports and dictate where they are sent or saved. Examples of these attributes include: Language, Full Name, Email Address, and Save Directory.

Ungrouped IDs. A hard-coded subfolder within the product's Groups and IDs feature. The subfolder is called the "Ungrouped IDs" group. It can be used to store user ID information. If the customer doesn't set up a customized user-grouping structure, all users can be placed in the Ungrouped IDs group and simply left there—in which case it serves as the main ID storage area. On the other hand, if the customer sets up his own user-grouping structure, Ungrouped IDs can be used as a holding area for user IDs until they can be moved into the proper groups.

The Ungrouped IDs group can be populated with IDs in several ways:

By Running Reports. When high-level reports such as Site Analysis are run, IDs that are found in the logfiles for the requested time-frame are automatically assigned to Ungrouped IDs.
Via Automatic Imports. Ungrouped IDs can be populated during automated ID import processes if the customer has not set up a grouping scheme. (If a grouping scheme has been created, the IDs are imported into their assigned specific groups.)
Manually. The Ungrouped IDs group can be populated manually.
Note. Low-level reports such as User Audit Detail, which cover a single user, cannot be created unless the user’s ID has been assigned to a group. Consequently, if the ID is not in a customer-created group, it must be in the Ungrouped IDs group.

URL. Universal Resource Locator. The full address of a Web page. Includes protocol designator (e.g., http), domain name (e.g., www.amazon.com), and directory or file name (e.g., /index.html).

User. A computer user whose access to Internet and intranet Web sites is monitored by this product. For reporting and/or filtering purposes, the user's ID must be available to the product via logfiles or other means, e.g., importation from an LDAP-based directory or a manual entry process.

VIP Group. A built-in group that is used by administrators to exclude certain individuals (VIPs) from reports. When an ID is assigned to this group, his or her Web-use activity will not appear in reports.

Visit. The act of clicking on a URL or hyperlink to request that a Web page or other object be downloaded. The typical Web page contains many different elements that are downloaded separately. (Refer to Hit for complete understanding.) To gauge the level of Web-use activity, this product emphasizes Visit counts. Unlike Hits, “Visits” counts how many Web pages a user actually requested, not all the elements downloaded as a result of those requests. Put another way, a hit count represents all elements downloaded during a user’s session, but this has no direct correlation to the number of Web pages the user actually visited or attempted to visit. In sum, to present the most accurate representation of the level of Web-use activity, this product distinguishes between extraneous hits and actual clicks. Futhermore, this product has an optional visit filter that is enabled by default.

Visit Filter. Feature which further differentiates between actual visits and hits, making for a more acccurate depiction of visits. The visit filter is enabled by default, but it can be disabled upon request.

Web Policy. A term that is synonymous with AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). See also Web Policy Support.

Web Policy Support. Web policy support refers to how this product helps enforce an organization's AUP (Acceptable Use Policy). Some of the attributes that help to accomplish this include: Category Classification, Edit URLs, Name Custom and Abuse Thresholds.

NOTE: An additional example in our filtering products is the Block Categories setting.

XML. Extensible Markup Language. A widely used interoperability standard. As used in earlier versions of this product and its documentation, the term XML generally refers to the product's optional-use "XML database" which, when enabled, can automatically retrieve and store logfile information in XML format. The chief advantage of this approach is greatly reduced report-generation time, compared to report-generation processes that read logfiles directly.