What is Employee Monitoring Software?

Employee monitoring is used to track the activity of personnel computers to identify and prevent internal threats, training, and performance analysis. This information is utilized to enhance employee efficiency and eliminate insider threats.

Employee monitoring software tracks all user activities on the computer - recording running programs, websites, emails, social media conversations, etc. throughout the entire workday. According to independent studies, such software is implemented in about 80% of large and medium-sized businesses in the USA.

OctoWatch is a modern tool for monitoring employee activity and optimizing labor productivity. Its functionality is used by managers to control their subordinates, middle and senior managers to analyze business processes, human resources specialists to monitor attendance, and system administrators to protect data and restrict access.

Uniqueness of OctoWatch

DLP system OctoWatch goes beyond the basic functionality of employee activity monitoring software through intelligent analysis of computer user behavior and the ability to automatically respond to threats created by employees. OctoWatch employs machine learning technologies and a rule-based system, records violations, stores evidence, and takes blocking and notification actions.

 

OctoWatch measures employee productivity, conducts risk analysis, and filters data. Moreover, in the event of a hack or other unauthorized access to data, OctoWatch allows you to find all activity logs, conversations, file copying histories, etc., which can help identify accomplices or participants in an attack within the company.

 

  • Real-time Monitoring

    OctoWatch tracks keystrokes, visited websites, running programs, file operations, printed documents, monitors conversations, and even recognizes text on the screen using OCR.

  • Behavior Analysis

    Intelligent behavior analysis can detect behavioral anomalies that indicate vulnerabilities. Dynamic risk assessment helps prevent malicious actions.

  • Rules

    Based on rules, automatic notifications are generated, programs are blocked, access to websites is restricted, and USB drives are monitored. You can use ready-made rules or create new ones with a simple editor.

  • Labor Productivity Assessment

    You can independently determine which applications and websites are considered productive and generate reports on their usage by employees. Employees and departments can be compared to identify leaders and laggards.

  • Audit and Evidence Collection

    Semantic search across all data, including OCR results, screenshot creation, and audio recording from the microphone - these are just a few examples of OctoWatch’s capabilities in the field of audit.

Why Monitor Employees?

 

The Main Method of Information Theft - Collusion

According to investigations by department "K", collusion among staff is the most popular method of accessing confidential information.

49% - collusion among staff within the company

17% - collusion among staff with third parties

Privileges Put Confidential Data at Risk

According to a report published by the magazine "Hacker"

37% of system administrators have exceeded their authority and had unauthorized access to data at least once

 

Employees Are the Main Problem

According to a survey by "Kaspersky Lab"

52% of executives cited employees as the weakest link in the information security chain

Most Employees Do Not Earn Their Pay

According to research by "Chief Accountant" magazine

65% of employees spend part of their working time visiting entertainment sites and communicating on social media, and 85% use email for personal matters.

Types of Employee Monitoring Software

    Most employee monitoring solutions consist of three parts:

  • Grabber application, or agent - installed on PCs, laptops, phones, tablets, terminals, etc.

  • Server application - installed in the local network or in the cloud.

  • Viewer application - used to view the collected information. It can be designed either as a standalone application or as a website.

Some solutions use special hardware, such as GPS trackers, motion sensors, smart cards. However, the most common methods of studying employee behavior are:

Application Usage Tracking

By analyzing the use of applications on work computers, you will be able to understand how employees spend their work time, which applications are productive, and which are not, and which documents and files employees frequently work with. As a result, the manager may decide to block or restrict access to certain applications, while the system administrator can identify unsafe ones.

More about the application usage tracking features in OctoWatch

 

Internet Activity Tracking

According to a survey, about 65% of employees reported using the Internet for non-work purposes during working hours. To address this issue, monitoring software for websites is used, creating black and white lists of URLs and IP addresses. OctoWatch includes an OCR module and analyzes the content of web pages in real-time. Thanks to rules and keywords, OctoWatch can classify sites as productive and unproductive, as well as dangerous and safe. OctoWatch can also block access to a site completely or partially, limiting time spent on it.

More about the website tracking features in OctoWatch

 

Email Tracking

Monitoring employee correspondence is one of the most effective methods for detecting and preventing data leaks. It can also provide insight into which employees are dissatisfied with their work before they become a problem for the business. According to research, 45% of employees use email for personal purposes during work hours. Monitoring correspondence is extremely important for companies that operate in sales, service, and marketing sectors.

More about the email tracking features in OctoWatch

 

Keystroke Logging

Keylogging is an excellent way to gain insight into the daily activities of employees, their attitude toward assigned tasks, professionalism, and productivity. OctoWatch uses rules to find potentially dangerous keywords in these texts. It is important to remember that if misused, keylogging can violate employees' rights by collecting personal information (such as credit card details, passwords). Please review the legal disclaimer.

More about the keystroke interception features in OctoWatch

 

Social Media and Messenger Tracking

Social media, if not controlled, can harm productivity. Also, employees can share confidential information through messengers. Therefore, employers seek to block or limit the time spent on these sites. With OctoWatch, you can intelligently block access to these sites. For example, OctoWatch can block chats that contain inappropriate or confidential keywords and send notifications when an employee contacts certain people or uploads files in a chat.

More about messenger interception features in OctoWatch

 

Audio Recording and Screen Capture

OctoWatch captures everything happening on the screen at a specified frequency. If the computer has a microphone, all sound will be recorded.

More about the real-time viewing mode in OctoWatch

 

Remote Employee Tracking

People are increasingly seeking to work remotely. Remote employees require special attention. They often operate in other time zones and work on their own devices. This can create both security issues and problems related to payroll calculation. OctoWatch allows you to track work time and automatically assess it, as well as assign special rules for controlling access to organizational resources.

More about tracking remote employees in OctoWatch

 

Freelancer Monitoring

Many companies use freelancers on a regular basis. Freelancers pose a significant security threat to the company, as statistics show that 60% of data breaches are related to third parties. Freelancers are very similar to remote employees, with the difference that they are informally engaged and often operate in other countries, thus their activities need to be monitored as closely as possible. OctoWatch will help strictly limit and control the accounts of such users in your system.

More about tracking freelancers in OctoWatch

 

Performance Evaluation

Time = money. To achieve results, your employees must work and earn their salary. It is essential to know exactly what time is spent on. In OctoWatch, you can evaluate both individual and group productivity, analyze and assess it.

More about optimizing personnel productivity in OctoWatch

 

Audit

At first glance, it may seem that adherence to employees' personal data contradicts the concept of employee monitoring. However, strangely enough, to comply with data protection laws, it may actually require the installation of a solution like OctoWatch. Only in this way can you determine if data protection and storage standards (GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, ISO 27001) are being followed and prevent their leakage.

More about audit and data protection in OctoWatch

 

Goals of Using Employee Monitoring Software

Improve Productivity

How diligently does the staff perform their work? How much time do employees spend on social media? Who among the department performs better than others? The employee monitoring program can help answer these and other questions. OctoWatch tracks employee activity throughout the day and then processes the data to generate reports:

  • How many hours each day were spent on work and non-work tasks.

  • Which websites and applications are the least productive (the least productive can be blocked right from the program window).

Eliminate Routine

Managers and department heads are forced to spend a lot of time on routine tasks such as tracking working hours, attendance, planning, calculating bonuses and penalties, etc. With the right employee monitoring software, you can automate many of these tasks. For example:

  • In OctoWatch, you can set a work schedule for the entire company, for a department, or individually for a user. The program will automatically monitor attendance, breaks, working hours, absences, overtime, etc.

  • When working with freelancers, you will receive information about the amount of time worked and the cost of work.

  • Easily identify effective and lagging employees.

Engage Employees

Sometimes even the most active employees may become disengaged. The reasons can be motivation, excessive monitoring, or lack of incentives. In this case, behavior analysis is necessary. The OctoWatch system can track employee activity throughout the day. By analyzing this data, you can understand:

  • How many hours a day your employees are active?

  • How much time do they spend in meetings?

  • How much time is spent on business correspondence?

  • How often do they take breaks?

  • How much time is spent on social media and games?

By identifying the reasons for reduced effectiveness, you can eliminate them. For example, reduce meeting durations and replace email with an instant messaging system. For slackers, prepare an individual performance development plan, etc.

Identify Threats

An insider is someone who has access to internal information and resources. This can include employees, partners, freelancers, etc. An insider becomes a threat when they intentionally or accidentally put the company in a dangerous position by creating data leaks, sabotage, fraud, theft, and other abuses of their access level. Insiders often collude with each other or with third parties.

OctoWatch includes a module for detecting internal threats. It will issue alerts upon detecting dangerous behavior, such as copying files to external hard drives, uploading files to the cloud, opening files from unknown sources, etc.

Teach Honest Work Habits

When you use a personnel monitoring system on all computers in your company, it means you strive to create a unified organization where everyone is assessed objectively and equally. Effective employees will receive bonuses and promotions, while slackers will receive reprimands. This creates an atmosphere of fairness and transparency. Managers will find it much easier to focus on main tasks and eliminate routine.

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