1. Additional IM support

When designing the new GFI WebMonitor we’ve focused on blocking thin IM clients – those clients which are available without having to download and install anything. GFI WebMonitor offers the possibility to block Gmail chat, Facebook Chat, Yahoo! Chat, and instant messaging portals such as meebo.com and ILoveIM.com. This ensures that any users who are trying to circumvent your IM blocking policy are stopped in their tracks.

2. Soft–blocking

We do realize that blocking everything all the time might cause issues, and there are people who actually need to browse certain websites which are typically blocked. So we have provided the facility to create a Warn and Allow policy. The Warn and Allow policy warns you that you are violating policy, but allows you to proceed anyway – should you choose to. This makes sure that your trusted users are empowered to use their experience and discretion when accessing certain sites.

3. Streaming Media blocking

We all know how irritating and frustrating it is to have a slow internet connection. It is even more frustrating for an IT Administrator to discover that bandwidth is being hogged by users listening to online radio, and watching YouTube or sports videos. No matter how fast your internet connection may be, streaming media eats into your bandwidth with gusto and this is why we’ve taken a few measures to help you limit the impact on your network. With GFI WebMonitor you can now block streams in applications such as iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player and QuickTime. You can also block streaming media within websites, such as those in news websites, and other audio and video embedded in websites, without blocking the website itself. This means that, while you can still follow news events, your favorite sports team, or celebrity, you won’t be taking up bandwidth needed by everyone else to work.

4. Access Activity Log

We have now provided you with detailed Access Log for websites, users, categories, etc, within the GFI WebMonitor User Interface (UI) so that you can monitor exactly when and where a user has been – without ever leaving the interface.

Remember, upgrading to GFI WebMonitor 2011 R3 is free so please send us feedback on the changes we implemented.

Have a look at what GFI WebMonitor can do for you to improve web security, or just download a free trial and give it a spin!

Most techies understand the web security risks posed by web browsing and we all take simple steps to mitigate these risks on a personal level. We can smell a phishing email from miles away, we ignore IM-based threats, and we suspect a Facebook worm as soon as we see a link getting posted over and over again. There are other ‘activities’ which we learn to screen out, but most users don’t. Malware authors exploit this lack of awareness to propagate their schemes – posing a security risk to the network.

‘But why is this dangerous?’ you may ask.

Although you may already have antivirus software installed on every endpoint, the extremely fast nature and growth of the internet makes it very difficult for a single antivirus to stop all threats.

‘So how do I limit the risk that casual user browsing poses?’

This can be done using multiple layers of web browsing protection – all working in tandem.

Proactive Protection – Automatic blocking of known malicious websites – powered by ThreatTrack

GFI WebMonitor™ 2011 R3 already scans every download with three antivirus engines. ‘But isn’t it better to stop a threat before a user can download an infected file?’ GFI WebMonitor now automatically blocks hundreds of thousands of known malicious websites – all of which are obtained through extensive monitoring of the latest threats through all of our sensors. This list includes websites which have been hacked temporarily and are currently distributing malware or malicious content such as spyware, adware, rogue software utilities, phishing scams etc. With the list being updated every hour you can be sure that the most recent threats are blocked.

Preventive Protection – Blocking Suspicious sites using Web Reputation

With ThreatTrack blocking we are automatically blocking those “known bad websites”. But that leaves us with a host of websites which could be malicious. How do we block websites which have not yet been detected? How do we prevent users from browsing websites which might turn out to be malicious? How do we know whether we should visit a website which we have never seen before? This is where Web Reputation comes in to address the ‘unknown’.

Web Reputation gives a score to websites to determine if these sites are safe to visit or not. It is like your safety consultant, who knows the unknown areas you’re thinking of visiting and is recommending whether you should visit or not. With Web Reputation we can advise you whether visiting a certain website may pose a risk. This is based on the experience we’ve gained from “monitoring” millions of websites and looking at their behavior. The advice is independent of categories and content. For example, any website not in our continuously growing 280 million website database is considered suspicious. There are many other factors we take into consideration, but based on experience we can safely say that you now have a security expert next to you and every user browsing the web.

With the above two features, and many others in GFI WebMonitor, including:

• Blocking of WebGrade Security related categories
• Scanning of downloads with multiple antivirus engines and including HTTPS scanning
• An antiphishing engine
• File download control

it has never been easier for SMEs to implement complete web security.

Have a look at what GFI WebMonitor can do for you to improve web security, or just download a free trial and give it a spin!

Competition is now closed.

Calling all IT administrators! Are you aware of what your users are browsing, downloading and sharing over your network?

No?

Then you’re in need of internet monitoring software and that’s where we come in!

Our March competition is for you (and for all those businesses and organizations that want to exercise control over their network and the information on it) and it’s super easy to participate and win!

The Competition

All you need to do is complete this form and answer the question in the drop down menu.*

The Prize

FIVE lucky people have the chance of winning a 50-user license for GFI WebMonitor™. Note that this software is for business use ONLY and not for home use.

The Deadline

The competition is open from Monday, March 7, 2011 until Friday, March 11, 2011.

Terms and Conditions

• GFI Software employees & their families cannot take part in this competition
• Upon contacting the winner/s, if no reply is received within a week, GFI retains the right to choose another entry
• Whilst GFI does its utmost to ensure that all prizes are delivered in a timely fashion the company does not retain responsibility for any prizes that are lost/undelivered
• GFI retains the right to cancel/change this or any promotion without notice
• GFI’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into
• Any incomplete or irrelevant entries; or entries that do not comply with the Terms and Conditions will not be eligible to win.
• Prizes are as described and cannot be substituted for cash

* Check out http://www.gfi.com/internet-monitoring-software for help with the answer.

So how did our software fare over this last quarter of the year? Check out Ed Fisher’s review of GFI VIPRE Antivirus Business as well as his post on installing GFI VIPRE. The Virus Experts also review GFI VIPRE glad that there is finally an anti-virus that won’t slow your computer down; a viewpoint shared by the folks over at TackTech.

If you’re interested in reading more about GFI software to know more about them, GFI WebMonitor was covered by Retrohack, Shortinfosec, Virus Experts and Business Security Information; while PC Pro and TackTech gave GFI Backup Business Edition 2010 a spin and Retrohack also took a look at the hosted solution of GFI MAX MailEdge.

This competition is now closed.

The festive season is upon us once again where we look at the year gone by and make our new resolutions for the year ahead. But one thing remains… the GFI Festive Season Competition! With fantastic prizes to be won and a very easy way in which to do it, this is one competition that you can’t afford not to participate in! Especially since there are TEN prizes to be given away!

Ten lucky winners have the chance to win a 10-user license for one of the following GFI software products: GFI LANguard, GFI MailArchiver, GFI WebMonitor or GFI VIPRE Antivirus Business.

But it doesn’t end there; one of these ten will be randomly selected to win an iPad!

How’s that for some festive fun?!

What do you have to do to win? Simple. Just complete this form and answer the simple question (select the answer from the drop down menu in the form).

Entries will be accepted until Wednesday, December 15, 2010 – the competition form will no longer be available after that date. The winners will be notified during the week starting Monday, 20 December, 2010 via the email address used in the form*.

Terms & Conditions

• Only one submission per person will be accepted
• Only completed forms will be eligible for the competition
• GFI Software employees & their families cannot take part in this competition
• Not all submissions who guess correctly will win a prize. 10 names will be drawn randomly from the list according to how many entries are received.
• The GFI Software user license is valid for one year.
• The GFI Software user license is valid for 10 users.
• Upon contacting the winner/s, if no reply is received within a week, GFI retains the right to choose another entry
• Whilst GFI does its utmost to ensure that all prizes are delivered in a timely fashion the company does not retain responsibility for any prizes that are lost/stolen in the mail
• The prize has to be sent to the country of residence listed upon registration; no other addresses will be permitted
• GFI retains the right to cancel/change this or any promotion without notice
• GFI’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into
• Any incomplete or irrelevant entries; or entries that do not comply with the Terms and Conditions will not be eligible to win.
• Prizes are as described and cannot be substituted for cash

* Prizes will be dispatched in January 2011 due to holiday season restrictions.

We’re jumping on the Cyber Monday bandwagon by having a mini competition which is just fun!

There are 100 GFI WebMonitor inflatable truncheons to be won and out of the 100 winners, one of you will be randomly selected as the winner of a $100 Amazon voucher. So you’ve got 2 great gifts this festive season – the inflatable truncheon which will provide endless hours of entertainment plus the chance to get yourself (or your loved ones) a great gift from Amazon.

To participate in this competition simply fill in the form below and answer the question correctly!

Terms & Conditions

• The first 100 correct answers will win the GFI WebMonitor inflatable truncheon
• One winner from the hundred will be randomly selected to win a $100 Amazon voucher
• GFI Software employees & their families cannot take part in this competition
• Prizes can only be sent to the Country of Residence submitted in the form
• Upon contacting the winner/s, if no reply is received within a week (7 days), GFI retains the right to choose another entry
• Whilst GFI does its utmost to ensure that all prizes are delivered in a timely fashion the company does not retain responsibility for any prizes that are lost/stolen in the mail
• GFI retains the right to cancel/change this or any promotion without notice
• GFI’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into
• Any incomplete or irrelevant entries; or entries that do not comply with these Terms & Conditions will not be eligible to win.
• Prizes are as described and cannot be substituted for cash

Meanwhile GFI Backup 2010 – Home Edition was reviewed by Don’t Lose your Data and RetroHack gave 4.5 Domos to GFI WebMonitor in their review of the internet monitoring software.

Moreover GFI LANguard was voted as the winner in the WindowSecurity.com Reader’s Choice Award, while the Best Channel Product 2010 – Business Solutions Magazine awards were presented to GFI WebMonitor, GFI MAX RemoteManagement, GFI MAX MailProtection and GFI EndPoint Security.

The Bob Around the World competition was held internally for all GFI Software staff and as you can see from the numerous photos that have been uploaded, it was very successful. (Photo submissions are now closed).

Now you have the chance to participate by being a judge on Facebook!

Head over to the Bob Around the World photo album and ‘Like’ your favourite photos – there’s no limit as to how many photos you can vote for.

The photos that are liked the most will be awarded first, second and third place winners respectively. Prizes will be awarded to the photographers as follows:

• 1st place: $100 Amazon voucher
• 2nd place: $70 Amazon voucher
• 3rd place: $50 Amazon voucher

Voting closes on September 30, so get clicking and see whether your favourite photos make the Top 3 spot!

We’ve been awarded six Best Channel Product awards from Business Solutions Magazine in the August issue of the publication. GFI received recognition for the strength of its channel products in the DLP and MS Platform categories, as well as the Email Security and Endpoint Security categories along with GFI VIPRE products.

The winning products in each category are:

Endpoint Security

• GFI EndPointSecurity
• VIPRE Enterprise

Email Security

• GFI MAX MailProtection
• Email Security for Exchange

MS Platform

• GFI MAX RemoteManagement

DLP

• GFI WebMonitor

More than 1,400 VAR subscribers to Business Solutions Magazine were asked to rate vendors’ products according to the richness of features/functionality; product reliability/durability; ease of integration; ease of upgrade and VARs’ ability to service the product. The results show that the Channel ranks GFI’s products in the top 15 percent of the categories most important to US resellers.

“GFI certainly earned its spot on the Business Solutions Magazine Best Channel Products list with superior products across a variety of categories,” said Sue Bresee, publisher of Business Solutions magazine. “GFI, along with the strength of the VIPRE product line, offers resellers a strong portfolio to present to customers and extreme richness of features and functionality.”

Commenting on the results, GFI’s CEO Walter Scott said, “This recognition from the channel community demonstrates that GFI’s products are among the best available for small and medium-sized enterprises. GFI is pleased to be rated so highly in terms of the ease-of-use of the products and the channel’s ability to service our products. Our efforts to make life easier for our customers, while providing them with exceptional quality products at a very competitive price, are paying off.”

“These awards highlight the importance of our strategic move into the hosted services market and our recent acquisition of the VIPRE product line. We believe that we have a solid product offering across all markets and we are confident that GFI is in an even stronger position to gain additional market share in existing and new markets and to provide our Partners with a broader choice of solutions for them to sell. Hats off to all those who have contributed to this success and sincere thanks to the Channel for its support, confidence in GFI and encouragement,” he added.

If you have a tech blog then this is for you!

We’re giving all tech bloggers the opportunity to write some great content for their blog by reviewing GFI WebMonitor™ – our internet monitoring and anti-virus software.

If this sounds like something that you’d be interested in doing then submit your tech blog URL in a comment below and if we think that a GFI WebMonitor review will fit well in your blog we’ll contact you with more details. (Kindly submit your real name and a valid email address in the form so that we can contact you).

All successful reviews* will be awarded an Amazon voucher worth $50 as well as a 10-user GFI WebMonitor NFR key valid for a year valued at $290. The review that we deem to be the best (detailed, accurate, fair) will also be awarded a fantastic 2TB NAS drive with integrated BlueRay Writer.

* Terms and Conditions:

Reviews must meet the following standards:

• Reviews must be no less than 500 words
• Reviews must have a minimum of 5 screen shots of GFI WebMonitor
• Reviews must be original in content. Any plagiarism will automatically disqualify you from receiving the voucher
• Reviews must be published by September 15, 2010 and remain online at the same URL for at least one (1) year
• Reviews must be published on blogs that deal solely with technology. Blogs that do not meet this criterion will not be considered
• Bloggers have one (1) week in which to acknowledge and accept GFI’s request for a review
• All vouchers will be sent after September 15, 2010
• GFI’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into