GFI WebMonitor

Features

GFI WebMonitor is now available in two versions:

• GFI WebMonitor 2009 – as a standalone proxy version which works in most network environments
• GFI WebMonitor for ISA Server – a dedicated plug-in for Microsoft ISA Server only

GFI WebMonitor™ is available in 3 editions:

• WebFilter Edition: Includes URL filtering and website categorization
• WebSecurity Edition: Includes anti-virus and anti-phishing protection and spyware detection
• UnifiedProtection Edition: Combines both WebFilter and WebSecurity editions

Freeware Version Available

GFI Software offers a FREEWARE version of GFI WebMonitor. This version features the monitoring component of GFI WebMonitor to provide organizations with a comprehensive picture of who is browsing the Internet, which sites they are visiting, what files are being downloaded and how much bandwidth is being used – at no cost.

Learn more about the FREEWARE version of GFI WebMonitor.

Features of GFI WebMonitor - UnifiedProtection Edition (common features)

The features below are available with all editions.

Monitor or Block a Connection in Real-time
Administrators can see what websites users are currently browsing and what files are being downloaded. An active connection, browsing session or download can easily be blocked, simply by clicking the block connection icon. Very useful if you need to interrupt the download of an overlarge file.

Block Applications' Hidden Downloads
Some software applications will connect to their home pages to download updates without the user’s consent, using HTTP tunneling. Although this reduces software version administration, it also presents a security risk.  Unknown applications (or Trojans) often use the same technique to download malicious files. Without the user’s consent spyware, adware and pornware can be downloaded to his or her PC. GFI WebMonitor gives you control over which sites are allowed to distribute updates, ensuring only safe sites (for example www.microsoft.com) gain behind-the-scenes access to your computers.

Hidden Downloads Monitoring
This feature allows administrators to assess the legitimacy or otherwise of downloads that are not initiated by the user or the browser. By examining the list, the administrator will be able to block or allow future downloads by adding the URL to a blacklist or whitelist respectively. This feature will block and identify background processes from downloading payloads that may be malicious in nature or use up network resources.

Monitor Bandwidth
Through user and site bandwidth monitoring features, the administrator has the ability to track download and upload traffic and the number of URL hits over time, either on a user-by-user basis or on a website basis. Real-time monitoring is achieved through drilldown reporting complete with graphs, available within the user interface.

Allow Exceptions through Whitelist and Blacklists
Any URL or user or IP can be added permanently or temporarily to the whitelist or blacklist which will supersede all web filtering and web security policies. For example, you could temporarily grant access to a particular user for his or her personal webmail account for a specified period of time, say over employee lunch breaks.

Controlled Access to the Configuration and Monitoring
GFI WebMonitor allows you to select which users can access the program’s configuration and monitoring interfaces. You can assign rights based on either the IP of the computer from which access is being made or by the domain-authenticated username of the client trying to load the configuration. Only users in GFI WebMonitor’s authorized users or IP list will be given access.

Support for Virtual Environments
Organizations that are currently using or plan to use virtualization on their network can still install and use a range of GFI products with confidence. GFI WebMonitor supports and runs on the most common virtualization technologies in use, namely VMware, Microsoft Virtual Server and Microsoft Hyper-V.

Features of GFI WebMonitor - WebFilter Edition

WebGrade^TM Database coverage of 205m URLs
The WebGrade database has been drastically improved to increase URL coverage across multiple languages. The DB size has increased to 205 million domains. Click here to learn about the URL classification process for the GFI WebMonitor WebGrade Database.

WebGrade Online lookups
Due to the constantly changing nature of the web, GFI WebMonitor now also queries GFI servers for categorization of URLs that are not found in the local cached database. If a URL is found to be uncategorized, it is processed by the server and added to the database.

User / Site bandwidth monitoring
Through the user and site bandwidth monitoring features the administrator has the ability to track download/upload traffic and website hits either on a user or website basis. Reports also show the amount of bandwidth consumed by each website category.

Top Policy Breakers
GFI WebMonitor will now report details on all users who were stopped by GFI WebMonitor from breaching your company's Internet Usage Policy. Such breaches may include browsing restricted sites, downloading of malware infected files or file types that are blocked through download control policies .

WebFilter policy exceptions
Apart from a generic Blacklist/Whitelist, the admin can also define site exceptions for each particular policy. A typical example will be to block all news sites except CNN.com.

Time-based Filtering
Each of web-filtering policy may be configured to work on a schedule, meaning that administrators can configure the product to allow users or groups to access certain websites during specific intervals; for example allowing more open access to entertainment or webmail sites during employee break times.

Anti-phishing
GFI WebMonitor protects the users from the potential risks of social engineering by blocking access to phishing websites through an auto-updatable database of phishing URLs.

Mitigate Legal Liability
Without the ability to exercise some form of management over what your users are browsing, you leave yourself open to legal liability in any number of ways.  Provide your employees with safe, well managed access to the Internet while on your premises and you will safeguard your company, your employees and your bottom line.

Features of GFI WebMonitor - WebSecurity Edition

MSN control
Monitor and block MSN & MS Live Messenger incoming and outgoing messages through GFI WebMonitor’s IM Control Policies.

Phishing Site Protection
All websites that employees try to access are checked against an auto-updatable database. If a web site is found on the phishing URL list, it will be blocked and the user shown an appropriate message.

User/Group/IP based download control policies
The admin has the ability to create multiple user/group/IP based policies in order to reflect security policies in the organization. For example the admin can create a policy which prevents employees from downloading videos and MP3 files.

Scan Downloaded Files with Multiple Anti-virus Engines
GFI WebMonitor uses multiple virus scanners to protect you against inadvertently downloading malicious software. Using multiple scanners drastically reduces the average time taken to obtain the latest virus signatures, greatly reducing the risk to your site by each new virus. The single engine approach only protects you as far as that particular engine can, in terms of being the quickest to recognize and respond to a new outbreak.

By using multiple engines you get a much higher degree of protection, having multiple opportunities for your engine to be the early responder. Importantly, since each engine has its own heuristics and methods, each brings its own unique strength in detecting and correcting for the ever-increasing variety of viruses. Overall, more anti-virus engines means more virus protection.

Anti-virus Protection through Norman Virus Control and BitDefender
GFI WebMonitor is bundled with Norman Virus Control and BitDefender. Norman Virus Control is an industrial strength virus engine, having received the 100% Virus Bulletin award 19 times running. It also has ICSA and Checkmark certification. BitDefender is a very fast and flexible virus engine that excels by virtue of the number of formats it can recognize and scan. BitDefender is ICSA certified and has won the 100% Virus Bulletin award and countless awards for its excellent protection. GFI WebMonitor automatically checks and updates the Norman Virus Control and BitDefender definition files as they become available. The GFI WebMonitor price includes updates for one year.

Malware (trojans, spyware, etc.) blocking via Kaspersky – optional
To achieve greater security and enhance the benefits gained by scanning via multiple anti-virus engines, users can add the Kaspersky SuperSecure anti-virus engine, available as an optional add-on. The Kaspersky SuperSecure database includes support for the detection of malicious software that can perform remote administration, keyboard espionage, password detection, automatic dial-up to paid sites, automatic downloads of files containing explicit materials and more. GFI WebMonitor automatically checks and updates the Kaspersky definition files as they become available.

Protect Against Socially Engineered Phishing Websites
Phishing is a social engineering technique that is used by malicious hackers to acquire personal information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details.  These sites are designed to lead users to believe that they are passing on their details to the genuine company. Online shopping and credit card companies are among the most targeted phishing websites. GFI WebMonitor protects users from the potential risks of social engineering by blocking access to phishing websites. This is done through the use of an auto-updatable database of phishing URLs.

Manage which File Types Users can Download
You can create multiple user/group/IP-based control policies in order to block the download of particular file types (such as Javascript, MP3, MPEG, exe, and more) for particular users or groups or IP addresses. Dangerous files (for example Trojan downloader programs) often attempt to penetrate a system masked as an innocuous file. GFI WebMonitor uses its built-in file signature scanner to analyze and detect the real file type signatures of downloaded HTTP/FTP files.

GFI WebMonitor for ISA Server
Designed as a plug-in for Microsoft’s Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server, GFI WebMonitor 2009 provides an outstanding level of management to IT administrators who want to monitor, control and report on what employees are doing on the Internet. GFI WebMonitor 2009, which seamlessly integrates with ISA Server, complements the powerful firewalling features while giving IT Administrators the ability to get a much clearer picture of what type of traffic is being filtered, what type of Internet requests are being sent to the server and the ability to apply policies and rules based on IP, user or groups.

Version:	20091030
Date:	30/10/2009