Table of Contents
Policy Benefits
Default Policies
Custom Policies
How to Create an Antivirus Policy
How to Create a Firewall Policy
How to Create a Web Filtering Policy
How to Create a Screen Recording Policy
How to Create a Network Time Access Policy
How to Create an Application Control Policy
How to Create an Activity Logging Policy
Most employees really want to do a good job and be productive. Nonetheless, personal Internet use has been found to be one of the number one time wasters at work. Experiments have shown that people who are able to successfully resist the temptation to surf at work make more mistakes than they would if there were no temptation. It’s harder for them to learn new skills, too. The practical implication of this is that employers shouldn’t have rules against surfing and then leave access to the web wide open. Instead, it’s best to allow internet access only when it is appropriate.
Intego Flextivity gives you the flexibility to manage your acceptable use policy the way that works for you. Do you want to limit use on your office wifi, but let employees surf as they please when they take laptops home? With Flextivity, you can do that. Do you want to put reasonable limits on social media surfing in the office – say, 30 minutes over the course of a day? You can do that too. Intego Flextivity helps you balance trust and team morale while putting common sense checks in place.
To ensure this balance remains in place, we recommend transparency with your employees through an acceptable use policy. Outline what is appropriate – or inappropriate – use of company equipment. Be clear about what filtering or monitoring will be in place. And then follow that policy up with a conversation. People are more apt to be successful when they know what is being measured, and most don’t mind being held accountable as long as they understand what they are being held accountable for.
For most small businesses, one set of rules across your entire company is really all you need. Larger deployments may have a need for more complex rules, but it’s easy to identify a minimum level of protection across all of your devices. Default policies let you do this. The first time you log in to set up your Flextivity account, we walk you through setting these default rules. If you do nothing else, these will be the policies that are applied to your devices and you will be up and running.
Flextivity has the following Policy Types:
- Antivirus: Ensures protection from malware. Allows control of basic anti-malware settings such as real-time and scheduled scanning, types of files scanned and what to do when malware is found.
- Network Firewall: Ensures protection from external attacks through the network. Controls settings determining who may communicate with the computer and to whom the computer may communicate.
- Network Time Access: Allows you to define when the computer may be active on the network and provide limits on different types of activity during a time of day. For example, you might configure the policy to allow access to social media for a maximum of 30 minutes during normal business hours.
- Web Filtering: Make sure that users stay away from inappropriate Web sites such as pornography.
- Screenshot Recording: Understand what users are really doing. Smart screenshot recording allows you to view what’s happening on a user’s computer when, for example, they go to a specific category of Web site or they type a certain keyword.
- Application Control: Control what types of applications are allowed to operate.
- Activity Logging: Tracks time spent on applications and websites, giving you an accurate picture of how your team members spend their day. Enabling activity logging will populate all of the Flextivity reports that you access through the web console.
Policies can be customized to fit the needs of a business and it's employees. New policies can be created for specific employees or groups, and default policies can be edited. Perhaps the IT Department in a company requires fewer restrictions than the Sales Department. Flextivity gives Administrators the flexibility to customize which client computers use which policies.
How to Create an Antivirus Policy
To create a new antivirus policy, log into the Flextivity Cloud web console and go to the Manage Policies page. Click on “Create New Policy” and select “Antivirus” as the type of policy to create. You can also give this policy a name to help you remember what it does.
On the left side of the screen, you will see a list of computers that have been authorized on your account. Choose the computers that should use this new antivirus policy. If you haven’t installed the Intego software on any of your Macs, this list will be empty and you will need to come back to apply this policy to devices.
Next, you will need to choose the antivirus settings that you would like to apply. You can choose from the following options, or create your own custom settings.
For more detailed information on creating an Antivirus Policy see the this article.
How to Create a Firewall Policy
To create a new firewall policy, log into the Flextivity Cloud console and go to the Manage Policies page. Click on “Create New Policy” and select “Firewall” as the type of policy to create. You can also give this policy a name to help you remember what it does.
On the left side of the screen, you will see a list of computers that have been authorized on your account. Choose the computers that should use this new antivirus policy. If you haven’t installed the Intego software on any of your Macs, this list will be empty and you will need to come back to apply this policy to devices.
Next, you will need to choose the firewall settings that you would like to apply. You can choose from the following options, or create your own custom settings.
For more detailed information on creating a Firewall Policy see this article.
How to Create a Web Filtering Policy
To create a new Web Filtering policy, log into the Intego Cloud web console and go to the Manage Policies page. Click on “Create New Policy” and select “Web Filtering” as the type of policy to create. You can also give this policy a name to help you remember what it does.
On the left side of the screen, you will see a list of computers that have been authorized on your account. Choose the computers that should use this new Web Filtering policy. If you haven’t installed the Intego software on any of your Macs, this list will be empty and you will need to come back to apply this policy to devices.
Next, you will need to choose the Web Filtering settings that you would like to apply. You can choose from the following options, or create your own custom settings.
None
This will disable all content filtering on websites
Keep It Safe
Keep your team's browsing "safe at work" by filtering out websites related to racism, sex, and pornography. Choose this setting if your goal is to keep your team in a safe environment and protect your company from consequences of inappropriate situations.
Bandwidth Saver
In addition to providing basic protection against racism, sex, and pornography, this setting helps save your bandwidth usage by blocking sites related to music, television, movies, and streaming audo and video.
All Business
This setting blocks sites related to auctions, gambling, television, blogs, chat, hacking, racism, violence, social networks, sex, pornography, newsgroups, profanity, movies, shopping, lingerie and music. Use this setting if you need to enforce more restrictive surfing policies in your office.
These settings can be customized by clicking See More below the settings slider.
How to Create a Screen Recording Policy
To create a new Screen Recording policy, log into the Flextivity Cloud console and go to the Manage Policies page. Click on “Create New Policy” and select “Screen Recording” as the type of policy to create. You can also give this policy a name to help you remember what it does.
On the left side of the screen, you will see a list of computers that have been authorized on your account. Choose the computers that should use this new antivirus policy. If you haven’t installed the Intego software on any of your Macs, this list will be empty and you will need to come back to apply this policy to devices.
Next, you will need to choose the Screen Recording settings that you would like to apply. You can choose from the following options, or create your own custom settings by clicking See More below the slider.
None
Screen Recording will be disabled.
Triggered
Flextivity will initiate Smart Recording any time an employee visits a website or types words that may be related to sexual harassment, workplace bullying or job hunting. Flextivity maintains these triggers to keep up with the latest trends so you don't have to. Smart Record will grab a screenshot once every 5 seconds and stepping down to once every 20 seconds over a five minute period. If the employee's actions set off another trigger, recording will continue.
Interval
Flextivity will grab a screenshot on your employees' computers once every 15 minutes as long as the computer is turned on. You will be able to review daily batches of screenshots for general monitoring of computer usage.
How to Create a Network Time Access Policy
To create a new Network Time Access policy, log into the Flextivity Cloud console and go to the Manage Policies page. Click on “Create New Policy” and select “Network Time Access” as the type of policy to create. You can also give this policy a name to help you remember what it does.
On the left side of the screen, you will see a list of computers that have been authorized on your account. Choose the computers that should use this new Network Time Access policy. If you haven’t installed the Intego software on any of your Macs, this list will be empty and you will need to come back to apply this policy to devices.
Next, you will need to choose the Network Time Access settings that you would like to apply. You can choose from the following options, or create your own custom settings.
None
Internet access is allowed at any time of the day, with no limitations. Choose this if your employees are free to use the Internet as they wish, with no limits on recreational surfing. Note that any categories blocked by Web Filtering will still not be accessible.
Productivity Booster
Surfing is slightly restricted between 8 and 6 pm. A one-hour time limit is set on browsing social media related websites and blogs. If you find your employees are more productive when they take small breaks throughout the workday, these limits will help ensure those breaks don't bleed into productive time. Note that any categories blocked by Web Filtering will not be accessible.
Productivity Maximizer
A limit is placed on browsing non-work related websites between 8 am and 6 pm. A one-hour limit is set for social media, blogs, music, news, forum, shopping, and sports categories. Choose this if you are trying to minimize distractions for your team. Note that any categories blocked by Web Filtering will not be accessible.
Breaks Only
All surfing is restricted during 8 am and 6 pm, but employes can surf as they wish during lunch hour. By default, this is set from 12 pm to 1 pm. Choose this only if your employees do not need to access the Internet as part of their job duties. Note that any categories blocked by Web Filtering will not be accessible.
Scheduled Access, Category Restrictions, and Website Restrictions can be edited under the See More tab.
Scheduled Internet Access
When "Restrict Internet Access to specific hours of the day" is checked, the blue intervals in the schedule represent what times the Internet may be accessed. This can be edited by dragging the allotted blocks of time, doubling-clicking a new time, and deleting an interval of time.
Category Restrictions
Category Restrictions can also be applied.
The limit for certain types of website content can be set for hours and minutes. You can also add category limits.
Website Restrictions
You can also apply daily category limits to specific websites.
How to Create an Application Control Policy
To create a new Application Control policy, log into the Flextivity Cloud console and go to the Manage Policies page. Click on “Create New Policy” and select “Application Control” as the type of policy to create. You can also give this policy a name to help you remember what it does.
When an Application Control policy is enabled, you will have access to a list of applications that are installed across your company's computers. You can then edit to block a blacklist of applications or allow only a whitelist of applications.
How to Create an Activity Logging Policy
To create a new Activity Logging Policy, log into the Flextivity Cloud console and go to the Manage Policies page. Click on “Create New Policy” and select “Activity Logging” as the type of policy to create. You can also give this policy a name to help you remember what it does.
When an Activity Logging Policy is created and implemented, application and website usage activity will be tracked, and Flextivity will populate and report this data. You have the option to track all of this data, or tracking can be enforced by location based filtering. Location based filtering means that data will only be tracked when employees are connected to a specific network.
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