Why Use Internet Monitoring Software?

With the dawn of digital age, adoption of monitoring solutions have become a necessity, be itparental control software in homes or digitalsurveillance tools at workplaces. Parents do not monitor their children with the intention of knowing everything about them or intruding their privacy. They do it because they are genuinely concerned about the well-being of their kids and want to watch over them. Likewise, employers are not interested in snooping on their employees’ computer activities and personal communications. The only thing they’re concerned about is the security of company’s data and of course, employee efficiency. Unfortunately, the intention behind using such technology is often misunderstood and consequently frowned upon. It’s important to understand that monitoring is different from snooping and that the use of internet monitoring software by parents and employees is not without a reasonable and genuine purpose.

Parents

 

As mentioned earlier, parents concerned about the well-being of their kids often adopt monitoring solutions. Children get acquainted with digital gadgets at a very early stage and like to spend most of their time on them. Due to this reason, they don’t talk to their parents a lot, hence leaving them in the dark about a lot of things. Kids become so addicted to their gadgets that even when they actually start to socialize with the outer world, they keep their feelings to themselves or share them on their social networking profiles.

Not a lot of parents are acquainted with the latest technology which is why they are unable to really know what their kids are going through. This is where a need for monitoring software arises as the parents need something that can assist them in knowing what their kids are going through. There have been multiple incidents in the past where parents were unaware of what their kids were going through until they decided to commit suicide because of extensive cyberbullying.

Even more worrisome is the uninhibited nature of internet and social media in particular. Predators commonly prowl the streets of cyber space, preying on unsuspecting young people through use of social engineering. To keep their young ones from getting caught in the trap laid out for them, parents use monitoring tools to watch over them, making sure that they are not engaging in risky associations.

Employees

 

The privacy of individuals does need to be respected, but in organizations, there is always a possibility of employees abusing their computer and internet privileges, causing the company some serious damage. In this day and age where companies are heavily reliant on their competitive advantage for survival and growth, they just cannot ignore the risk of data leakage. They can’t afford to turn a blind eye to the employees’ tendency to waste time on the internet either. Consequently, employers are left with no choice but to install monitoring software and apps on the digital gadgets of their employees.

This means that the administrator can get a detailed view of the organization’s Internet activity without knowing who is generating that traffic. Only in particular cases, such as in a legal investigation and the gathering of forensic evidence, would it be possible to identify an individual’s use of the Internet.

The real problem is how to protect the organization from web-based threats. Irresponsible Internet usage can put a company at risk in several ways; from downloading malware-infected software to visiting websites that carry drive-by downloads or other exploits, as well as phishing sites. With a good Internet monitoring solution it is possible to allow users to access only authorized sites that are relevant to one’s work – this greatly reduces the risk that your network is exposed to malicious sites and malware. Internet monitoring software will also scan any downloads for malware, sometimes using multiple anti-virus engines to ensure the biggest possible virus detection rate.

Internet monitoring software will also give valuable information that can help an administrator to detect problems and take corrective action in a timely manner. For example, if bandwidth usage is excessive, the computer and application responsible for using excessive bandwidth can be identified and fixed. If there is no indication that the connection is being abused but bandwidth utilization remains high, it may be the case that the organization’s Internet backbone needs to be upgraded.