M86 Security is pleased to announce the temporary addition of two new categories to assist R3000 customers with the bandwidth and security concerns that March Madness brings.
The two new categories will consist of:
March Madness News – A collection of sites that center on providing news and information about the NCAA basketball tournament. Please note that most of these sites will also be categorized as Sports.
March Madness Streaming – A collection of sites that provide a streaming audio or video feed of NCAA basketball tournament games.
These categories will be available throughout the NCAA basketball tournament. The categories will be added to all R3000 systems with an existing library update license via the normal library update on March 15, 2010. The categories will be removed on April 12, 2010 via the normal library update.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is M86 Security providing these temporary categories?
An event like March Madness can often be a concern for security and network administrators. Any event that increases Internet traffic can also increase bandwidth. There is also the productivity aspect to consider. Every minute that a user spends on March Madness is a minute that is lost from a productivity standpoint.
In addition, any events that can drive additional web traffic to specific sites is something that cyber-criminals will often target. We saw this in the past with the Olympics and with the Presidential Inauguration; cyber-criminals targeted these events with attempts to infect systems with various Botnets. M86 Security believes this event will be no different. M86 Security is committed to helping our customers handle these concerns.
What can I do with these categories?
You have several options with these categories. Below is a list of options:
Do Nothing/Report – You can choose to perform no action from a blocking/warning standpoint, and simply report on the usage by your users.
Warn – You can set these categories to provide a Warning to your users that they may violate the Acceptable Use Policy by visiting these categories. You would then be able to report on any usage by your users.
Quota – You can provide a quota for the amount of time your users spend in these categories. This will allow you to ensure that users do not spend an inordinate amount of time visiting these sites, without blocking the users outright. Once a user has exceeded their allotted time in these categories, they will be blocked from access for the remainder of the day. You will also have the ability to report on usage by your users.
Block – You can choose to block these categories. This would stop users from accessing these categories all together.
Combination of the above – For example, you could choose to block the streaming content, and warn or quota the news content.
