Introduction
Why do I need RMM Web Protection?
Almost all of our customers rely on a software based antivirus and firewall package for network security. This is an essential part of network security but it is very much a reactive system and is very often the only line of defence your users have against malware, viruses and other security threats.
In having RMM Web Protection on your systems, you’ll get an additional layer of protection that prevents your users from reaching malicious or inappropriate content in the first place.
RMM Web Protection proactively prevents users from visiting web sites that are considered a security risk, or web sites that could result in staff productivity loss.
It stops threats before they arrive on your network, not afterwards!
The RMM Web Protection was formerly available to our RMM Subscribers as an optional extra, but from January 2022 this service will become included as part of all active RMM subscriptions. For more details please review the How we Work page and the the RMM Service page, or contact us in the usual way.
Our RMM reporting tools can let you to see what sort of sites your users have been looking at online, block or allow specific web sites or all sites rated as risky or categorised as inappropriate. Certain sites can be allowed only during certain times of day (e.g. to allow staff access to Facebook at lunchtime only) but blocked during work hours.
Below, we see this customers web protection has silently blocked malware sites on most days, peaking on 14th October 2021.
This data is blocked even before it reaches the computer and can be traced to specific computers if required.
Something on the customers computer has tried and failed to reach malicious web sites 81 times…
….RMM Web Protection blocked every one.
It’s not just malicious web sites that pose a risk. Some web sites can and should be blocked based upon category…
…unless you want your members of staff hunting for pornography while they are at work?
We can block web sites according to category and subcategory…
And even when the site is blocked we can pop up a message just in case there is a “false positive”:
The Default Web Protection Settings
When we enable RMM Web Protection, we start off by setting some defaults that will block security threats and block access to web sites that could be a liability to your business. After a while we’ll send you a full category list so you can specify what other types of web sites you wish to block as part of a customised approach to your users.
These are the default settings which will be blocked at all times once your systems have RMM Web Protection enabled.
Web Security
Malware Sites / Phishing and Other Frauds / Proxy Avoidance and Anonymisers / Spyware and Adware / Botnets / Confirmed Spam Sources / Spam URL’s / Unconfirmed Spam Sources / Open HTTP Proxies
Legal Liability
Abused Drugs / Adult & Pornography / Sex Education / Gambling / Marijuana / Swimsuits & Intimate Apparel / Hate and Racism / Violence / Nudity / Illegal
The Optional Web Protection Settings
Once we’re happy that the service is installed an successfully blocking according to the default selections above, we can switch you to our customised Web Protection service . We can customise the setup for your business (or each department in your business) according to the categories shown below. While categories can be blocked or allowed, we can also ‘whitelist’ or ‘blacklist’ specific web sites. For example we could block all gambling sites, but allow the National Lottery web site. Or we could allow all News & Media web sites, but block the Daily mail web site.
We recommend you ask us to block items marked red but this is not set up by default.
Productivity Loss
Social Networks / Dating / Games / Pay to Surf / Food and Dining
Potential Productivity Loss
Auctions / Shopping / Travel / Home & Garden / Military / Individual Stock Advice & Tools / Entertainment & Arts / Personal Sites & Blogs / Local Information / Hunting & Fishing / Online Greeting Cards / Sports / Web Based Email / Music / News & Media / Alcohol & Tobacco / Image & Video Search / Fashion & Beauty / Recreation & Hobbies / Motor Vehicles
Bandwidth Control
Streaming Media / Peer to Peer / Online Personal Storage
Questionable / Legal Issues
Cult & Occult / Hacking / Weapons / Questionable / Keyloggers & Monitoring / Cheating / Gross
Human Resources Issue
Training & Tools / Job Search
General Interest
Real Estate / Religion / Philosophy & Political Advocacy / Society / Kids / Internet Portals / Web Advertisements / Content Delivery Networks / Abortion / Health & Medicine / Dynamically Generated Content
IT Resources
Computer & Internet Security / Computer & Internet Info / Shareware & Freeware / Internet Communications / Web Hosting
Business Oriented
Financial Services / Business & Economy / Legal / Translation / Reference & Research / Educational Institutions / Search Engines / Government
Others
Unknown / Dead Sites / Parked Domains / Private IP Addresses