Computer Sales and Support

Computer Usage Monitoring

Posted on 14. Jan, 2009 by admin in Security

Overview

Computers are a great tool with tremendous power. However, along with this awesome capability and global reach comes significant danger and potential for misuse. There are many predators and evil influences lurking just outside your computer screen waiting to pounce on unsuspecting children and careless adults. People want the tools to know what is going on with their near and dear.

Additionally, employers who supply computing resources want to make sure their computers are used for their business and not against it. Monitoring software provides the essential information necessary to prevent any misuse.

Another type of tool to control your computer is Internet filtering or parental control software that proactively limits certain activities and access on the computer. Find out more about it in the Best Parental Controls article.

Who Uses This Kind Of Software?

The following groups use tracking software:

• Parents – The primary concern of parents is that their children do not become the target of predators and pedophiles. Social sites and chat rooms can present a significant danger. They also don’t want their kids’ morals and ethical standards corrupted by damaging relationships or involvement in pornographic, violent or corrupt web sites. Overuse and addiction to games or online activities is another area of concern. Another serious issue is that the children may be revealing confidential financial or family private information to strangers.

• Employers – In this age of litigation and viral videos, businesses are concerned that no activity should go on that puts them at risk or reflects badly on their company. Loss of company assets due to export of company confidential information or customer lists needs to be prevented. Employee productivity is also a non trivial concern. Employees can waste hours on shopping sites or blogs or pornography. Some sites and chat engines also pose the danger of allowing viruses or spyware to gain access to corporate systems. All of these activities need to be monitored and controlled to ensure the safe and efficient conduct of business.

• Schools – have similar needs to businesses. Additionally, schools monitor to insure that no hateful or intolerant views are promulgated.

• Governments – Where access to confidential or secret information is allowed, special monitoring is needed to see that no leak or misuse of information occurs. They may also monitor systems to ensure that laws and standards are adhered to.

• Members of a relationship with suspicions – When someone suspects that their romantic or business partner is up to no good, they will want to know if they really have something to worry about. If they do, they want to capture information that can be used to protect their interests, initiate action against the abuser or cause them to cease the harmful activity.

Monitoring Features

Capture of significant activities

Good monitoring programs will capture the following;

• Sites Visited -See a replay of the sites visited. Get a report of the sites and the time spent on them. Note attempted approaches and contacts by strangers.
• Keystrokes Typed – This is especially useful for capturing user names and passwords.
• IM’s and Chats – Review the conversations at your leisure
• Emails – Monitor all types of email communications
• Social sites such as MySpace and Facebook -See who they are associating with and what they are displaying of themselves.
• Searches -What are they looking for?
• Programs being run -Are the kids playing games or doing homework?  What is that employee doing running confidential customer service searches in your database?

Alerts and Blocking

• Keyword Based Responses – Get an alert or block activity triggered by sensitive keywords or keyword combinations. For example, block sites when the phrase “build a home made bomb” is entered.
• Website Blacklist – Prevent visits to harmful or inappropriate websites.

Monitoring Features
The program should provide snapshots of the screens being used. If the program has a DVD recorder type of control that allows rerun of screen sequences at normal or altered speeds that provides a superior review capability. The capture can be time based at fixed intervals or based on predefined events such as new program starts, mouse clicks, enter key entry or window changes.

The program should also provide a variety of summary reports of the different types of activities. It should provide a list of websites visited by user and the time spent on each. A similar report should be provided for programs run. Drill down and direct access to controls to respond to report information are a quality feature.

Monitor Invisibility and Self Protection

The monitoring program should run in the background and be invisible to the monitored user if necessary. It should be protected from being turned off or disabled if discovered. It should not appear in the task manager, system tray, add and remove programs section of the control panel.

Quality Support

Responsive phone, chat and email support should be provided.

Tags: computer monitoring, filtering, parental controls, spy