We had an Internet filter in place, but it became a big hassle.

Users complained that it was blocking sites they needed to do
their jobs.

And the IT department was way too small to keep up with all the maintenance and monitoring involved.

Besides, we knew there were plenty of savvy users out there that could get around the filter if they tried hard enough.

So we decided to change our Internet security approach.

To give users what they needed to work – and to save a lot of hassle for us – we removed the filter.

Instead of thwarting behavior we educated users on security. We held a company-wide meeting to go over our technology-use policy.

Employees got basic reminders – use the Web for work only, beware of attachments and pop-ups, etc.

We followed up with periodic e-mails when we found a specific problem.

Also, we now work closely with supervisors and team leaders. They
let us know if someone’s breaking the rules, then we monitor behavior.

Otherwise, we let our teaching do the trick.

And it’s worked. We have had a few incidents, but way less than we had when we used the filter.
(Tim Olig, IT Leader, Mid States Aluminum Corp., Fond du Lac, WI)

Tags: filter, policy, technology-use, users, Web