Protecting HTTP Traffic: Why Web Filtering Should Be Your First Line of Defense

Overview

Unrestricted browsing opens doors that allow viruses, Trojans, spyware, and other malware into your network that will very likely if not certainly decrease productivity, cause network disruptions, or even steal vital proprietary information. Web filtering is concerned primarily with HTTP-based threats to the network. HTTP threats that need to be protected against include threats revolving around messaging, email, P2P fileshare, spyware, adware, hijackers, cookies, DRM, malware, phishing, spam, worms, and employee Web surfing. Protecting against all of these threats requires a multi-layered content security strategy. Web filtering is a critically important component of this strategy, since HTTP communications are one of the primary methods used to exploit people, applications and networks.