Unauthorized Web Use on the Rise

As anyone with a proxy knows, one of the reasons the proxy exists in your organization's network is to either enforce HR or corporate policy for web surfing. It's no surprise when one of your users complains they can't get to a website they are trying to reach, whether it's a legitimate site or not, it's of course the fault of the proxy that they can't get there.

So it's no surprise that users are finding ways around the enterprise proxy. What's perhaps surprising, is the fact that many IT departments aren't aware their users are circumventing the corporate proxy. Dark Reading reported only 15% of IT organizations were aware of users bypassing the corporate proxy, while a survey of end-users indicated at least 3 out of 4 organizations had users bypassing the proxy.

That should be a heads up to any IT administrator to make sure their firewalls and proxies are working together to prevent end-users from bypassing the corporate proxy using tools like anonymous proxies, TOR or Hopster. The IT admin should also check to make sure their proxy is running the latest software and has the latest tools available to prevent proxy avoidance.