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The Problem
Many employees of Thomas Cook Holidays Ltd need access to the Web as part of their job but managers realised that bandwidth was being inappropriately used and certain employees were using the Internet to download inappropriate files such as MP3.
Whilst it was not a significant problem at the time, Thomas Cook Holidays Ltd was alert to the fact that it had the potential to escalate into a costly and time-consuming problem.
Thomas Cook Holidays Ltd realised that it needed Internet Access Control to define what its internal users were accessing and downloading.
The Solution
Thomas Cook Holidays Ltd bought SurfControl Web Filter having tested a free 30-day, no obligation evaluation. Russell Goodman network and server engineer was immediately impressed and chose to implement it because it gave them the ability to instantly establish Internet access policies that they previously could not have enforced. SurfControl Web Filter went on to the network unobtrusively and took less than 10 minutes to install. Thomas Cook Holidays Ltd was impressed that SurfControl Web Filter could sit beside its firewall rather than having to be a module for it.
The reporting facilities provided by SurfControl Web Filter mean that employers can be as specific as they wish when analysing employee use of the Web. Thomas Cook Holidays Ltd have chosen the least obtrusive policies for employees, deciding only to block adult sites. Reports created by SurfControl Web Filter are emailed to departmental managers on a weekly basis; it is then up to the discretion of each manager to identify problem users. Goodman commented: "We don’t want to watch our employees’ every move but merely want to ensure that we are using our network appropriately."
The Future
Since installing SurfControl Web Filter, bandwidth utilisation for non-business activities has decreased, freeing up network traffic to ensure that simple business processes, such as invoicing, are not slowed down or interrupted. This positive use of the company’s resources has also increased availability of the Internet for business use. Goodman also believes that Thomas Cook is saving a significant amount of money on time that would have previously been staff productivity loss as well as reducing the opportunity for security breaches on the network.
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