Inteliguard is one of the first of a new generation of intelligent content filters for the educational and business sectors.

Inteliguard has been programmed with AI (Artificial Intelligence) and uses a computer equivalent of the human brain to make a decision about not just complete web sites, but individual web pages. Inteliguard will correctly filter pages regardless of how long they have been on the internet.

Inteliguard is also unique in that it is a totally self-contained package as it incorporates its own proxy server with a monitoring and reporting system.

Why Filter?
In our communications led society, all major companies and educational establishments will have email and Internet access. In a recent report it was estimated that there are over 250 million PCs connected to the Internet through company or educational networks. The advantages are great, in particular that employees and/or students can gather the necessary information that is relevant to their job or course far more quickly and far more efficiently than was ever possible in the past.
The down-side to this wonderful invention is the abuse to which this tool can be subjected, and the temptation for employees and students to use the Internet for personal use and to browse inappropriate websites, this can cause problems in four areas:-

Productivity
Up to 2 hours per day can be spent by employees surfing the net for non-business usage. In a recent survey it was found that just under 60% of employees visited shopping sites, just over 50% visited entertainment sites, just under 40% visited financial sites and over 10% visited adult sites. Even for a small company with only 20 employees who have Internet access, the cost of non-business surfing, in salary costs alone, can amount to over £100,000 per annum based on an average of 2 hours personal surfing per day.

Legal Implications
Both educational and corporate organisations have a duty of care to safeguard their students and employees. This duty of care extends to the use of the Internet where access is provided by the organisation. There are growing problems for businesses where an employee downloads illegal, immoral or inappropriate material that is seen by others who find such material offensive. These circumstances can lead to complaints or even action being taken for constructive dismissal where an employee is continually offended by others. Claims for unfair dismissal can lead to awards of up to £50,000 per person.

Bandwidth
No organisation would tolerate a situation where customers cannot call the company because all the phone lines are being used by employees on personal business. They should also not tolerate the corporate Internet connection being tied up by personal use at the expense of business use.

Security
Even a connection that has the best protection in the world, firewalls included, cannot protect the LAN from an Internet user downloading a virus, trojan or other software that has the effect of not only unlocking the front door but also leaving it wide open with the “Welcome” mat out to potential hackers.

Three versions of Inteliguard are available, for Education, for Business and for Internet Service Providers who wish to provide fully filtered internet access. The three versions are based around the same technology but taylored to the sector for which they are intended.