Web filtering packages protect and serve

What do pornography, shopping, watching sports, gambling and trading stocks online have in common? They're all activities available through Web sites that most businesses don't want employees indulging in. To enforce those rules, corporations are increasingly turning to Web-filtering packages that block access to forbidden sites.

A filtering product is typically installed at the Internet perimeter as a stand-alone gateway, multi-function appliance or as software added to a firewall or proxy server. Last year, companies bought $270 million worth of Web-filtering software, up 34% from the year before, according to IDC. There are at least a dozen vendors selling this type of filtering product, with WebSense and SurfControl leading the market with about 20% share each. Third- and fourth-ranked Secure Computing and Symantec each hold about 6%.

Web filtering is attracting start-ups. Webwasher AG, a Siemens spinoff, doubled growth in two years to capture a 3% share - about 4,000 corporate customers.

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What do pornography, shopping, watching sports, gambling and trading stocks online have in common? They're all activities available through Web sites that most businesses don't want employees indulging in. To enforce those rules, corporations are increasingly turning to Web-filtering packages that block access to forbidden sites.

A filtering product is typically installed at the Internet perimeter as a stand-alone gateway, multi-function appliance or as software added to a firewall or proxy server. Last year, companies bought $270 million worth of Web-filtering software, up 34% from the year before, according to IDC. There are at least a dozen vendors selling this type of filtering product, with WebSense and SurfControl leading the market with about 20% share each. Third- and fourth-ranked Secure Computing and Symantec each hold about 6%.

Web filtering is attracting start-ups. Webwasher AG, a Siemens spinoff, doubled growth in two years to capture a 3% share - about 4,000 corporate customers.

The Web-filtering market is poised for growth, according to IDC, which forecasts a $364 million market by year-end and $893 million in 2007.

In anticipation of such a rosy scenario, mergers in the Web-filtering arena are coming at a fast clip, too. In just the past few months, Secure Computing acquired N2H2, which held about 4% of the market. Secure-messaging vendor ZixCorp bought Web-filtering vendor Elron, which has 4,600 customers, to get into Web filtering. And systems management vendor NetIQ bought content-filtering vendor Marshal Software.

Content battle

For customers, Web filtering is increasingly viewed as just part of the larger content-filtering battle that includes fighting spam, computer viruses and peer-to-peer applications that eat up bandwidth, and that cause even more trouble when left unchecked.

Some companies say one of their main reasons for filtering is to protect employees from going to Web sites where spyware, peer-to-peer applications or potentially harmful plug-ins could be downloaded.

"I hate Grokster, Gator, Hotbar and Livingwaterfall, to name a few," says Paul Grulke, director of information services at law firm Arnall Golden Gregory LLP.

The firm uses NetIQ's WebMarshal filter to try to stop unauthorized software downloads from invading the 400-employee company in Atlanta.

While no one thinks content filtering for spam or viruses is a bad idea, putting high-visibility gateway controls to use on the Web can lead to employee resentment, many administrators say. And Web filtering entails establishing a Web appropriate-use and review process that is likely to include upper management, the human resources department and the legal division working in conjunction with the IT department.

Washington Hospital has long published an appropriate-use policy for the Web after periodic reviews by its management council, which includes senior IT staff and business executives, says Bob Venable, IT director at the Freemont, Calif., hospital. Employees must sign the hospital's acceptable-use policy, which prohibits online shopping, pornography, gambling and "personal surfing," he says.