We at Untangle (UT) have long been warning of the perils of privacy invasion on the internet – and especially on social networks.

In fact, we released a tool (SaveFace) to help you do just that on Facebook. But SaveFace was largely ignored by the casually-sharing masses.

Since we were unable to get the message across to the masses, perhaps the noted expert below can. Enjoy!

- Bob

Last week we went through a renaming exercise to simplify our product line up.  As our business has grown over the last two years, our offerings had become increasingly complex. We’ve trebled our paying customer base in 18 months, and with that came more product packages and price points. With the release of Untangle 7.4, we wanted to regain some of the simplicity inherent in our brand.

We now offers three distinct packages:

Untangle Lite Package (formerly called Open Source Package) provides a collection of free, open-source software applications that run on the Untangle Server. It is an entry-level multi-functional firewall, ideal for the technically savvy. It is available free at http://www.untangle.com/lite-package.

Untangle Standard Package (formerly called Small Business Standard Package) combines Untangle’s free, open-source software applications, with additional user and policy management capabilities, live technical support from Untangle, and a robust web content filter. It is ideal for budget-conscious organizations that need tight management and control of their internet usage. A free 14-day trial is available at http://www.untangle.com/standard-package.

Untangle Premium Package (formerly called Super Bundle) delivers all available software and services from Untangle in a single offering, including enhanced network security and protection, better SPAM blocking, robust web content filtering and multiple ISP management. It is ideal for small-to-medium sized organizations that want complete protection, monitoring and control of their network. A free 14-day trial is available at http://www.untangle.com/premium-package.

Lite, Standard, and Premium just seems so much simpler than Open Source, Small Business Standard, and Super Bundle. I hope you’ll agree.

… the fall-out of yet another headline on government officials found subscribing to porn sites. This time some defense employees and contractors are under the spotlight for allegedly accessing child porn, according to today’s Boston Globe. This follows an investigation reported in April into SEC employees using government computers to access porn, too.

Note to federal network administrators: block this stuff altogether with a robust web content filter. Prevent it from happening in the first place. Save everyone from the humiliation, indignity and wasted taxpayer money of having to clean up afterwards.

The FIFA World Cup is over for another 4 years. The buzzing of the vuvuzela soundtrack that accompanied it has begun to fade from our ears. People are getting back to work, ecstatic/angry/indifferent (delete as appropriate) that Spain are the new Trophy holders. Normality returns.

However, during the month of the World Cup proceedings, I was struck by how many organizations allowed the matches to be streamed into their offices. Indulgence, perhaps, for the fact that it is only every four years? Acceptance that soccer is a truly global sport? Novelty that it was the first World Cup hosted by an African nation?

At Untangle, we saw little interest from our esoft web filter customers in filtering out the soccer streams. Equally, Google Adwords had very few people seeking solutions to filter football or soccer. Organizations globally let staff support their teams, on company resources, in a scale I’ve not yet witnessed for other sporting phenomena.

It almost seemed to be an acknowledgement to how many nations were represented at the event, and how many nations make up a typically modern, cosmopolitan workforce. And that, surely, is a good thing.

I really don’t mean to be a kill-joy. In fact, having grown up in South Africa, I’m really proud to see soccer’s premier event hosted there. However, if we are planning on getting any work done between now and July 11 when it will all be over, some web policy guidelines might be in order. A few things to think about:

• With 32 different nationalities in the contest, the chances are pretty good that someone in your organization is a loyal fan.
• With 64 matches of 90+ minutes’ of regular play each, plus extra time in the knock-out rounds, there’s over 100 hours of top-flight soccer to watch.
• ESPN are doing a stirling job of broadcasting all the matches either live or recorded over the web on espn3.com.
• The schedule of matches also manages to co-incide with much of the US business day, despite South Africa being 9 hours ahead of the US west coast.

All in all, you’re likely to experience a productivity hit over the next four weeks, as staff and colleagues log on to watch soccer online.

Consider setting some usage policies that only allow access to video streaming sites are certain times of day; our Policy Manager can help. If you’re taking a harder line, you can monitor or block sports categories or specific web sites using our eSoft Web Filter. As I said, I hate to be a killjoy…

Yesterday we announced the availability of a new bookmark utility to enable Facebook users to restore their privacy settings, called SaveFace. The response has been phenomenal. People within our community and beyond are equally concerned about the encroachment Facebook has made over the privacy boundaries (check out Matt McKeon’s visual depiction of how Facebook has broadened the default privacy settings to basically become public over the last five years).

This clearly tapped a nerve in public sentiment. See the TV coverage on last night’s CBS5 News.

We encourage you to use SaveFace to fix your Facebook settings. Then, tell you friends. Because if they leave their default settings as is, information about you, that they have published, is still public. That embarrassing photo they took on that “Hangover“-esque weekend in Las Vegas, then posted and tagged in their Facebook Photo Album, with your name on – it’s still public. Get them to run SaveFace too – for your sake. Email them this URL: http://www3.untangle.com/saveface.

So said Gen. James N. Mattis USMC – the Joint Forces commander in Iraq – at a recent stateside conference (see this NY Times article).

No kidding, given the slide at left!

As a (former) Marine, I spent a couple of years in the Pentagon. Even then (20 years ago), the military’s biggest decisions were made based on Powerpoint.

As Seth Godin wisely says: “Guns don’t kill people, bullets do.”

This week three news-worthy stories re-enforced why protecting your network at the gateway to the internet, is essential.
1. McAfee apologizing for pushing an anti-virus update to tens of thousands of PCs, that effectively shut them down.
2. SEC employees accessing porn sites on the tax payer’s Dollar, at a time when the SEC really needs to show some moral backbone.
3. Blippy exposing credit card numbers in a security breach, as members’ credit card details appeared in Google searches.

Using a multi-functional firewall at the edge of a network would counter the kinds of risk presented in all three news items:
1. Protection from viruses ever reaching PCs behind the network, and therefore being the recipient of updates itself.
2. Robust web filtering enforces acceptable internet usage. Porn and other forbidden categories of web sites are simply blocked.
3. Indivual sites that are deemed a data security risk to staff, students or family members can be individually barred, too.

Risk comes in many forms. Network protection from multiple risks is like a good insurance policy – it’s there when you really need it.

The U.S. IMPACT Study released today titled Opportunity for All: How the American Public Benefits from Internet Access at U.S. Libraries shows 77 million (32%) Americans age 14 or older took advantage of Internet access in a public library in the past 12 months. Public internet access is also highest amongst the 14-18 year age range.

This data provides further support to libraries’ stance of ensuring they provide a safe online experience through their public access programs. Libraries concerned about how to provide safe internet access, without barring valid web sites too, should consider Untangle’s eSoft Web Filter. Its fine-grained control of web content filtering is ideally suited to a public access environment, and keeps them CIPA compliant, too.

Many IT professionals will be familiar with the IT management tool, SpiceWorks. Well, we’re delighted to see that the SpiceWorks community has voted Untangle #1 on the Best Content Filtering Appliance SpiceList. We’re also #2 on their Best Software Firewall SpiceList.
Thanks Folks!