On Friday, most of the world will turn its eyes towards China and the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games. In the past weeks there has been a sharp jump in the amount of Olympic-related scams and spam appearing online and, just like basketball in March, this summer IT teams will need to monitor and defend their network from sports fans.
IT teams need to focus on how the network will be used during the upcoming Games.(IMG:BOCOG)
Let’s start with the scams that have appeared in the news recently. Hundreds, if not thousands of people have fallen victim to scams offering passes to various events during the summer games. Fraud Web sites, both promoting the games and condemning them, have cropped up in Spam related e-mail, forum links, and various news groups since early summer. These sites attempt to install Malware, sell game-related merchandise, or even event tickets.
Sadly, only a handful of legit Web sites offer tickets and merchandise, the others are all rogues. So, with this in mind, IT departments need to monitor their networks, and not only control staff by limiting the time spent watching the games, but also watch out for malicious links and enforce a content-filtering policy.
During the NCAA basketball tournament, often called 'March Madness', IT departments step up policy, enforcing the locations and places that staff members can use the company's Internet to watch online coverage of the games. This year, NBCOlympics.com will be offering 3,600 hours of streaming coverage of the Chinese games, as well blogging, analysis, and even fantasy league gaming. This translates into considerable bandwidth and lots of it on the network, something many IT departments guard with zealousness at the behest of the boss.
So what can be done to control the network, but at the same time be considered human by allowing the office to watch some of the summer events?
Well, IT professionals can use measured doses of policy enforcement and productivity monitoring. Fortinet offered some tips to The Tech Herald recently to help companies who need policy and tips on controlling the network, while still offering their employees a chance to watch.
For example, make sure employees and new hires know the corporate policy on Web use. Employees should know whether their Internet usage is tracked, and how this impacts their future on the job.
"Businesses that use filtering solutions to control Web site access should communicate what types of sites are blocked, and if the NBCOlympics.com site will be restricted," Fortinet suggested. "While blocking all access is an option, consider offering limited access so employees can enjoy the games without impacting their work. This also instills good will among the workforce."
Staff should also never follow unsolicited Web links suggested by a third party; instead, they should open their browser and type in the URL for the site they want to visit. This will lower the chance that any Olympic-related Spam that wasn’t caught by company filtering doesn’t snag another victim. Finally, its wise to remind employees to guard sensitive personal and company information, and never reveal any information to an unknown or untrusted vendor, especially one that just happens to appear with an Olympic-related purchase offer or request.
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