'Blue Monday' Draws High Employee Traffic to Shopping Websites During Work Day

'Blue Monday' Draws High Employee Traffic to Shopping Websites During Work Day

Websense's Adaptable Internet Filtering Policies Manage Employees' Online Holiday Shopping - On The Clock, Even With Bosses' Approval

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBSN), the world's leading provider of employee internet management solutions, today stated that "Blue Monday," the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday and the official kickoff of the online holiday shopping season, has resulted in high employee traffic to shopping websites -- during the work day. However, this influx of holiday shopping at the office does not necessarily mean a drop in productivity for employers. Websense Enterprise(R) empowers organizations to balance employees' needs to buy holiday presents online without hurting the bottom line, and even with the bosses' approval.

Named after the blue hyperlinks on web pages, Blue Monday is one of the busiest online shopping days of the year. In fact, on Blue Monday 2003, consumers spent more than $300 million shopping online as they returned to the office to utilize corporate high speed internet connections. This year is expected to be no different. According to comScore Networks, online retail spending will exceed $15 billion during the November/December shopping season, representing an increase of 23 to 26 percent compared to last year's season.

Allowing employees to shop online during the work day is a significant benefit -- it saves employees the time and hassle of having to visit a shopping mall, while allowing them to make convenient purchases directly from their desktop. As many employees work longer hours during the next month to prepare for the upcoming holidays, many companies choose to approve using the internet at work for personal reasons for acceptable amounts of time.

However, with the ease and popularity of online holiday shopping comes the increased risk for cyber-abuse. According to Websense, there are more than 377,000 websites devoted solely to shopping. With a myriad of shopping outlets at their fingertips, an employee could easily spend several hours scouring retail websites for the perfect digital camera, or bidding on the latest toy on an online auction site -- resulting in a considerable drain on corporate resources and productivity.

To strike the appropriate balance between both company and employee requirements, Websense Enterprise helps facilitate an employee-centric internet access environment. The granularity of Websense Enterprise gives organizations the ability to closely manage or block internet categories including shopping sites during temporary periods of anticipated high levels of employee distraction such as Blue Monday. Websense's patented flexible filtering options accommodate companies that may wish to manage, but not completely block access to these types of websites.

"Blue Monday is just the start of what is shaping up to be a very busy online holiday shopping season, and organizations should prepare themselves for an increased amount of employee traffic to retail sites in the weeks leading up to the holiday," said Harold Kester, chief technology officer for Websense, Inc. "However, blocking access altogether to shopping websites is not always the answer. With Websense's adaptable internet management policies, organizations can actually increase their overall employee productivity as well as employee morale."

Patented Websense web filtering policy options include a time-based quota, in which companies set daily time limits for employee access to non-business-related websites, and notify a user when they must use quota time to access a site. For example, for the holiday season, an organization may choose to extend their normal "daily personal use of the internet" quota from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, providing adequate time for employees to leverage the internet for e-commerce while at work.

In addition, Websense also offers a continue option which notifies a user that a website is considered inappropriate, while immediately allowing access to the site with prior notification that access to the site will be reported.

Shopping websites make up just one category out of more than 80 others in the Websense Master Database, the largest, most accurate, and up-to-date database of websites available. The Websense Master Database currently contains more than 7.3 million site postings.

For a free 30-day trial of Websense Enterprise go to www.websense.com

About Websense, Inc.


Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBSN), the world's leading provider of employee internet management solutions, enables organizations to optimize employee use of computing resources and mitigate new threats related to internet use including instant messaging, peer-to-peer, and spyware. By providing usage policy enforcement at the internet gateway, on the network and at the desktop, Websense products enhance productivity and security, optimizes the use of IT resources and mitigates legal liability for our customers. Websense serves more than 23,600 customers worldwide, representing 18.5 million seats. For more information, visit www.websense.com.

For more information, please contact: Jennifer Culter of Websense, Inc., +1-858-320-9511, jculter@websense.com.


Source: Websense, Inc.

CONTACT: Jennifer Culter of Websense, Inc., +1-858-320-9511,
jculter@websense.com

Web site: http://www.websense.com/


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