Reasons to Monitor Computer Usage Tips
Read these 9 Reasons to Monitor Computer Usage Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Computer Monitoring tips and hundreds of other topics.
Plugging The Leak
Taken from Infoweek 2003, "...the greatest threats to business computer systems, networks and data isn't from hackers or competitors. It's from employees..."
For many reasons, if information is readily available to them, employees will pass it along to the outside world. By monitoring all computer and Internet related activities you now have records of who printed what, who copied what, who sent this email and who received that email. There is literally nothing an employee can do on your computers online and offline that will not be recorded.
Increasing Productivity
To an employer, every minute that is spent not working toward a finished product or a goal is increased costs and reduction of profits. Unproductive time is the number one factor in the loss of profits within a company. Employees have a bad tendency to waste time by trading stocks, surfing web pages, playing online games, chatting or sending email with friends and much more.
Based on a recent Gallup Poll, it is estimated that every employee spends approximately 75 minutes a day wasting time. As an example, let's take an average salary of $15 per hour. Based on a 5 day work week this results in an annual loss of $4, 875 per employee. Now multiply the annual loss per employee by the total number of employees that you have working.
By having a monitoring solution, you can monitor such behavior and see what exactly your employees are doing with their time. Take charge and start monitoring your employees to ensure they are working when they should be working.
Piece Of Mind
As a parent, we go through hundreds of emotional changes while our children grow up. Sending them off to school for the first time or sending them for their first sleepover at a friends or relatives house can be a turning point in our parental lives. All of these "first times" can cause anxiety because we feel that we don't have control of the situation. If you were able to monitor your children as they participated is these activities, to ensure that they were OK, would you feel a little more comfortable?
As our children grow up, new anxieties emerge from new experiences being made available everyday. A little bit of control however, is being given back to us in the form of technology. Computers today offer a whole new form of experience for our children and not all of them are good. Software today however allows us as parents to monitor these activities to ensure are children are safe from harmful material and sexual predators.
Parents should know what is available to them as tools to keep their children safe. Tools such as:
- Being able to block particular websites
- Being able to monitor what their child is doing on the Internet in next to real-time
- Recording of entire chat messages
How To Catch An Online Cheating Spouse
If you are a spouse who suspects your partner could possibly be having an affair you could investigate the matter yourself by monitoring your partners online usage with a stealth (invisible) monitoring spy software.
Spy software is a monitoring tool which allows you to unsuspectedly monitor and record user's activities on the computer. With easy to use spy software, you will be able to monitor exactly what your spouse has been doing online and off-line just as if you are looking over their shoulder! It allows you to record keystrokes, e-mails, online conversation, password, Web sites, and take screen captures at intervals set by you like a surveillance camera, and deliver spy logs to you via E-mail.
Internet Fraud
Internet Fraud refers to any type of fraud scheme utilizing one or more online tools, such as chat rooms, email, websites or message boards - to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions, or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions or to others connected with the scheme.
Most of the fraudulent activity taking place on the Internet today is done through stolen credit cards, which are obtained in many ways. One of two ways is hackers gaining access to company databases and stealing the information and secondly employees who deal with thousands of customers selling credit card information to criminals. A good habit to get into if you use your credit card frequently is checking you credit cards statements at the end of each month to ensure there are no charges on there that you didn't make.
Here are some other types of fraudulent activity being conducted on the Internet:
Business opportunity/"Work-at-Home" schemes - business opportunities that will supposedly allow individuals to earn thousands of dollars a month in "work-at-home" ventures. These schemes tend to require the potential employee to pay anywheres from $35 up to hundreds for training and work material that never end up in your hands. Remember, you never have to "pay" to work!
Online Automotive Fraud - fraudsters post vehicles, sometime luxurious ones for much less than retail value. A buyers contacts the seller hoping to score a deal. The seller informs the buyer that the vehicle is located overseas and that the buyer is required to send a minimum payment of X amount of dollars in order to start the shipping process. After a few days or weeks have passed, the buyer realizes that they have been scammed as there is no more communication between the buyer and seller. Always research the seller unless in is a reputable person or company. Ask for comments from previous buyers, or preform a background check on the seller/company.
Internet-Related Crimes
Law Enforcement Agencies are facing a new type of crime in Internet-Related Crimes. Although the Internet has been around for more the three decades, it has only been in the last 10-12 years that the Internet has molded into a global tool. Yet, as many aspects of business, social, political and cultural life moved the the Internet, so has crime. Listed below are a few reasons why Law Enforcement Agencies use software to monitor computer activity:
Computer Intrusion - is any unauthorised access of a computer or network of computers.
Password Trafficking - illegal acquisition, sharing, or dealing in passwords.
Copyright Violations - unauthorized storage, copying, or dissemination of copyrighted material such as computer software, music, movies and books.
If you feel that any of the activities mentioned above are taking place, you should notify your local authorities immediately.
The Drawbacks Of Computer Monitoring
@Businesses
Employee privacy is the main concern when it comes to computer monitoring in companies and knowing where to draw the line. Without having a well drawn out plan, and a well devised company policy, which outlines employee monitoring, you are setting yourself up for trouble!
@Home
The relationship between parents and children is one of much friendship, love and trust. Communication between children and parents, no matter what the reason is, is instrumental in maintaining those qualities. When it comes to their safety, children, more specifically young teenagers look at surveillance more as a lack of trust and privacy. Much like the businesses, parents should have a game plan set out in dealing with their children about Internet usage and the danger that exist. Knowledge is power!
Know The Signs
Perhaps you feel that there is no need to block porn sites from your children. Maybe you feel that the open communication and honesty that you have with your children is enough for them realize that accessing such content is wrong and they won't do it.
If this is the case, then congratulations, you have won the battle. However, some parents can be naive and underestimate their children's curiosity. Below are few warning signs that your child might have a problem with pornography on the Internet:
- Your child is hiding computer discs
- You child spends a large amount of time on the Internet and continues to be on it well into the night
- You have been noticing unusual charges on your credit card. You should pay special attention to the phone charges that are described as "website" as pornographers do not want to be recognized and caught as such.
Suspicious Activity In Your Chat Program
With the Internet being so prominent, chat programs are as popular as
ever as a way of communicating with friends, family, co-workers, and
more. Chat monitoring software will allow you to record all chats and instant messages to and from the user, from all the most popular chat programs such as AIM, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ and many more.
With this popularity comes dangers, including Internet predators pretending to be someone they're not who may entice your children into giving personal information or even meeting in person. You might find that employees are simply being unproductive by chatting to friends during work hours. By monitoring chat activity on your computers you can protect your children and users, increase employee productivity, catch a cheating spouse in the act, and much more.
| Guru Spotlight |
| Joe Wallace |
