IT administrators require detailed information about Internet usage on the network. This helps budget computing resources and ensure adherence to corporate policies. In addition to its powerful Web filtering and malware protection capabilities, the Barracuda Web Filter allows administrators to generate more than 35 different reports on Internet activity. Reports can be generated on users’ Web browsing activity, by domains and content categories, by time spent online or by bandwidth consumption.
Having a comprehensive, flexible and easy-to-use native reporting engine enables the Barracuda Web Filter to offer a fully integrated solution. Generating reports is simple. Select the time period, report type and format, and then generate the reports or schedule for automatic email delivery. Additional filters can be applied to generate reports for a specific user/group, domain or category.
Comprehensive
Reports on all aspects of monitored online activity •
Reports can be anchored on User Activity, Domains, Categories or Action •
Web requests, bandwidth usage, policy violations and spyware activity presented in tabular and graphical form •
Applicable to IT Administrators, HR departments, executive management and other compliance functions •
Flexible
Generate one-time reports or schedule automatic delivery on a daily, weekly or monthly basis •
HTML, PDF, Text or CSV formats •
Optional filtering by Source (Name, IP or User Group) of traffic or by Destination (Domain, Category) •
The Barracuda Web Filter also provides Content and Application Logs to track online activity in real-time •
Web traffic Syslog messages are recorded to a text file stored on the Barracuda Web Filter that can be exported •
Easy to Use
Native reporting engine does not require separate clients or database management •
Simple and intuitive Web user interfaceWeb filtering reports are typically used by human resources, information •
technology, executive management or other equivalent overseeing functions within an organization to regulate Internet access, maintain network security and improve productivity.
Business Drivers for Reporting
Network administrators are concerned with monitoring and optimizing computing and bandwidth resources across the organization. The vulnerability of the network to security risks is also a major concern. An administrator could be interested in monitoring how bandwidth is utilized, daily Internet usage patterns, infection activity and efficiency of Web filtering systems. On the other hand, human resources administrators are concerned with regulating Internet activity across the organization to minimize inappropriate content and loss of productivity. Human resources are often tasked to ensure users are protected against security risks and inadvertent misuse.
The Barracuda Web Filter reports provide several views of user Internet activity. The reports can be generated per user, per client or per group, or aggregated across all users. Through these granular reports, administrators can monitor a variety of parameters such as Web usage patterns, bandwidth consumption and infection activity. The wide variety of reports provided by the Barracuda Web Filter is designed to satisfy the all aspects of an organization’s monitoring requirements.
Web Usage by Requests
Content filtering activity is one of the most common reports used to drill into an organization’s overall Web activity. Administrators can identify domains or categories most often blocked and the type and frequency of actions taken by the Barracuda Web Filter when enforcing Internet access policy. These reports are useful to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the content and application filtering engines. Report types include:
Report Type Description
Top Blocked Domains List of domains most often blocked and the number of blocked requests. Domains
very frequently blocked could indicate an overly restrictive filtering policy.
Top Warned Domains List of domains with the most warnings issued and the number of corresponding
requests. This report could indicate common policy violations.
Top Blocked Categories List of commonly blocked content categories and the number of blocked requests.
Top Warned Categories List of categories with the most warnings issued and the number of corresponding
requests.
A major issue facing organizations and educational institutions today is the increasing level of leisure browsing from within the workplace. This can lead to a loss of productivity or even risk legal action from exposing users to objectionable content. The latter concern is particularly applicable to educational institutions who are legally obligated to regulate Internet access to inappropriate sites.
The Barracuda Web Filter includes several reports for administrators to continuously monitor Internet activity for inappropriate usage, then prevent and correct such usage by configuring appropriate policies. These reports can be combined with other reports to get a detailed look at user Internet activity. For example, a school administrator could identify students who frequently access blocked content and also the Web site categories that these users frequent. Some applicable report types are:
Report Type Description
Top Users by Requests List of top users ranked by the total number of Web requests made within a
specified time period.
Top Monitored Users by Requests List of top users ranked by the number of monitored Web requests.
Top Blocked Users List of users who made the most requests to blocked content within a specified
time period. This report is very commonly used to identify users who violate policy.
Top Warned Users List of users who made the most requests to warned content within a specified
time period.
While designing network usage policy, administrators have to often strike a balance between regulating access while not being overly restrictive. To do this, it is useful to understand which domains or categories are most popular among the users and then design policy to provide appropriate levels of access. For example, a network administrator could estimate the bandwidth usage is at a peak during certain hours and apply a restrictive policy but allow access to some popular leisure sites, like personal email during off-peak hours. The following Barracuda Web Filter reports allow administrators to identify the most popular online content within their users:
Web Usage by Time
The Barracuda Web Filter includes detailed Time Based reports. These reports provide information on users, domains and categories ranked by total time spent browsing as well as the time spent on individual browsing sessions. In general, a browsing session is considered terminated when there is no user activity for 5 minutes.
Report Type Description
Top Users by Time Spent List of the top users ranked by total time spent browsing.
Top Users by Session Time List of the top users ranked by individual browsing sessions. A browsing session
ends when there is no activity for 5 minutes.
Top Web Sites by Time Spent List of the top domains ranked by the total browsing time spent on each domain.
Top Web Sites by Session Time List of the top domains ranked by individual browsing sessions.
Top Categories by Time Spent List of the top content categories ranked by the total time spent browsing.
Top Categories by Session Time List of the top content categories ranked by individual browsing sessions.
Sessions by Domain Browsing session breakdown per domain requested.
Sessions by Dategory Browsing session breakdown by content category.
Quality of Service
Quality of Service is generally a function of how bandwidth is utilized across all Internet users in the organization. By reporting on bandwidth utilization ranked by Web requests for users, domains and categories, the Barracuda Web Filter makes it easy to monitor and tune the network as well as design policies to optimize resource usage and allocation. For example, an administrator can identify Web sites that consume the most bandwidth and regulate access to them if there is no adverse impact on overall productivity. Some applicable report types are:
Report Type Description
Top Web Sites by Bandwidth List of requested domains ranked by bandwidth consumed within a specified time
period. Top Monitored Domains by
Bandwidth The Barracuda Web Filter allows administrators to monitor traffic to Web sites rather than allow unrestricted access or completely block access. Monitoring allows administrators to flag policy violations without actually blocking access. This report provides a list of monitored domains ranked by most bandwidth consumed within a specified time period.
Top Monitored Categories by
Bandwidth List of content categories of monitored domains ranked by most bandwidth consumed.
Top Users by Bandwidth List of top users ranked by total number of Web requests made within a specified
time period.
Trends
Trend reports provide details on Internet traffic patterns allowing network administrators to profile Internet activity trends. By looking at the trends, administrations can appropriately allocate bandwidth and other resources as well as configure policies to maintain network usage within acceptable limits. For example, identifying peak Internet usage periods can help an administrator budget bandwidth and other resource requirements. Some applicable report types are:
Report Type Description
Bandwidth by Hour Line graphs detailing the bandwidth consumed in hourly intervals over a specified
time period.
Bandwidth by Time of Day Line graph detailing the bandwidth consumed on an hourly basis in a 24 hour
period.
Requests by Hour Line graphs detailing the number of Web requests made in hourly intervals over a
specified time period.
Requests by Time of Day Line graph detailing the number of Web requests made on an hourly basis in a 24
hour period.
Actions by Hour List of the number and types of actions taken by the policy and filtering engines
over a specified time period. You can find the number of block, allow, warn or monitoring actions taken in hourly intervals over the specified time period.
Actions by Time of Day List of the number and types of actions taken by the policy and filtering engines
in a 24-hour period. You can find the number of block, allow, warn or monitoring actions taken in hourly intervals during the 24 hour period.
Spyware Infection Activity
A major concern for network administrators is network security and protection from Web-based malware attacks. The Barracuda Web Filter prevents harmful downloads from the Internet as well as detects spyware activity from infected client machines. Spyware Infection Activity reports detail any detected spyware infections on client computers as well as harmful downloads that were prevented by the Barracuda Web Filter. Using these reports, network administrators can monitor the health of their network, detect vulnerabilities early and design preventive and corrective measures. Some applicable report types are:
Report Type Description
Top Users by Spyware Requests List of users who made the most number of requests for content with potential to
cause malware infections.
Infection Activity Details aggregated infection activity.
Top Infected clients Identifies client computers with spyware infections.
Summary Reports
Barracuda Web Filter: Report Comparison
Report Type Information Filtering Options
Source Destination
Login IP Group Domain Category
Web Usage by Requests
Top Blocked Domains Blocked domains requested most often Top Warned Domains Warned domains requested most often Top Blocked Categories Blocked Content Categories requested most often Top Warned Categories Warned Content Categories requested most often Top Blocked Users Users that made the most requests to blocked content Top Warned Users Users that received the most warnings Top Users by Requests Users that made the most number of Web requests Top Monitored Users by Requests Users that made the most number of Monitored Requests Top Web sites by Requests Domains requested most often
Top Web sites by Time Spent Domains on which users spent the most time browsing Top Categories by Requests Content Categories requested most often Top Monitored Domains by Requests Monitored Domains requested most often
Top Monitored Categories by Requests Monitored Content Categories of domains that requested most often Web Usage by Time
Top Users by Time Spent Users spending most time overall Top Users by Session Time Users with the longest browsing sessions Top Web Sites by Time Spent Web sites on which most time is spent overall Top Web Sites by Session Time Web sites with longest browsing sessions Top Categories by Time Spent Categories on which most time is spent overall Top Categories by Session Time Categories with the longest browsing sessions Sessions by Domain Session breakdown by domains Sessions by Category Session breakdown by Category Quality of Service
Top Web sites by Bandwidth Web sites that consumed the most Bandwidth Top Monitored Domains by Bandwidth Monitored Domains that consumed the most Bandwidth Top Monitored Categories by Bandwidth Monitored Content Categories that consumed the most Bandwidth Top Categories by Bandwidth Content Categories that consumed the most Bandwidth Top Users by Bandwidth Users that consumed the most bandwidth
Top Monitored Users by Bandwidth Users that made Monitored Requests that consumed the most Bandwidth Trends
Bandwidth by hour Bandwidth usage in hourly intervals over the reporting period Bandwidth by Time of Day Bandwidth usage hourly in 24 hour period
Requests by Hour Requests made in hourly intervals over the reporting period Requests by Time of Day Line Graph of Requests made hourly in 24 hour period Actions by Hour Actions taken in hourly intervals over the reporting period Actions by Time of Day Actions taken hourly in 24 hour period
Spyware Infection Activity
Top Users by Spyware Requests Infection by User Infection Activity Infections Top Infected Clients Infections by IP Summary Reports
User Report Summary report for content requests User Activity Summary for user activity Requests by User Domains visited in chronological order Domains by User Domains visited, number of requests and bandwidth
For more information on the Barracuda Web Filter, please visit http://www.barracuda.com/ webfilter or call a Barracuda Networks regional sales representative at 1-888-ANTI-SPAM for a free 30-day evaluation.
About Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Barracuda Networks Inc. is the worldwide leader in email and Web security appliances. Barracuda Networks also provides world-class IM protection, application server load balancing, Web application security and message archiving appliances. Coca-Cola, FedEx, Harvard University, IBM, L’Oreal and Europcar are amongst the 70,000 organizations protecting their networks with Barracuda Networks’ solutions. Barracuda Networks’ success is due to its ability to deliver easy to use, comprehensive solutions that solve the most serious issues facing customer networks without unnecessary add-ons, maintenance, lengthy installations or per user license fees. Barracuda Networks is privately held with its headquarters in Campbell, Calif. Barracuda Networks has offices in eight international locations and distributors in more than 80 countries worldwide. For more information, please visit www.barracuda.com.
