Businesses and private users’ devices are getting hacked, tracked, and watched 24 hours a day. An employee may risk your business by using inefficient proxies and VPNs to bypass your network and web security protocols.
Whether it’s for something as innocent as purchasing something online from an eCommerce site or quickly checking your social media likes, or for something more sinister as accessing inappropriate content, your business may be a few clicks away from suffering disastrous consequences because a staff member was negligent online.
To assist you, we’ll discuss the ways employees find ways to bypass your network and web content filtering protocols. We’ll tell you why it’s hazardous for your company and give you the best tips, like employing a YouTube proxy, on how you can stop them from continuing to place your business at risk.
Bypassing Security Protocols: The Dangers
There are various reasons why it’s dangerous or a problem for your business when employees bypass your company network and web filtering security protocols.
Security
The most dangerous reason is that they’re risking the security of your business. You may keep sensitive client (or employee) information or financial data, which could be detrimental to your business should the information be breached.
When an employee is given access to everything on the web, you increase the probability of your network or servers being attacked since users can stumble onto websites with malicious software. This is a daily occurrence, and the inclusion of policies such as Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) to work has increased the risk for companies substantially.
Decreased Productivity
Company IT administrators will block certain websites, social media platforms, gaming sites, online casinos, and other distracting content from employees to maintain or improve productivity. Decreased productivity will ultimately result in your company being inefficient and losing money due to distracted employees.
Company Etiquette
Businesses have to be extremely careful to maintain company etiquette and decency among employees. Security protocols and firewalls block employees’ access to inappropriate online content like sites that openly communicate hate speech, pornography, or crude content.
How Employees Bypass Your Security Protocols
Employees have become relatively well-educated on how to bypass your company’s security protocols. It seems there is a step-by-step guide on the web for anything. You’ll easily be able to bypass a web filtering protocol if you have some basic knowledge of technologies and an instructional guide that’s readily available online.
Below are the most common ways employees bypass your security filters and the best solutions to stop it from happening:
Free Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
A staff member trying to bypass your security protocols will probably opt for a free online VPN, which will likely cause more harm and be wholly ineffective and unsafe. At the same time, it will be able to bypass your web security filters, which makes this solution considerably hazardous.
Users who don’t know much about this type of software will have no idea what to look out for and will install it as a quick measure to access a site banned by your business with no sense of consequence to the repercussions it may have on your company.
Solutions:
● Block the following VPN ports: 10000 TCP/UDP/4500 UDP/ 1723 TCP/ 1701 TCP/ 1194 TCP/UDP/ 500 UDP/ 442 TCP.
● Prevent employees from installing VPN extensions.
● Restrict users from installing foreign applications without an administration password.
DoH
When DoH is installed, it can cause endless headaches for your organization. DoH uses a mechanism that overwrites DNS settings that are centrally imposed and allows your employees to bypass any web filters that are DNS-based and traffic filtering solutions.
The technology hides traffic from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and also cloaks all the network-level details that web and traffic data filters require to block websites and content adequately. Firefox enables DoH automatically, making it easy for employees and complicated for businesses to control.
Solutions:
● Install a filter that’s agent-based, like BrowseControl, that can block websites at the browser level.
● Add use-application-dns.net to prevent the web browser from defaulting to DoH.
● Employ application blockers to restrict the launching of DoH web browsers.
● Use the Group Policy Object in Active Directory to disable DNS-Over-HTTPS.
Free Proxy Services
Your company might already use a business proxy server that acts as a web filter and firewall. Plenty of free proxy websites offer gateways between users and the internet; employees will install these to try and bypass your security.
This is extraordinarily dangerous as these proxies can hide your employee’s activities from the business firewall, and they’ll be able to surf the web for free. However, unlike their paid counterparts, like a YouTube proxy, these free versions aren’t safe to use and can open up your business network to other attacks. With certain free proxies, some users also have the ability to modify administration browser settings and forward data to outside proxy servers.
Solutions
● Add all the proxy categories in the list to restrict proxy usage except for your business proxy.
● Monitor employees closely.
● In the Active Directory Prevent, the Group Object Policy can be used that will restrict users from using USB devices or applying updates to settings in the web browser. You can additionally safelist company-owned devices and restrict BYOD devices.
Conclusion
Combined with restriction-based policies, computer and user monitoring, and administrative safeguards, these protection measures will bolster your web filtering and security protocols. If your company’s business relies on social media content on YouTube, for instance, you should look at investing in a YouTube proxy.