IMonitor Software Blog

With the need for Internet access at work, increasingly companies find that monitoring what their workers are doing during work hours is a necessity rather than a mere extreme measure of security.

The addition of people who work from home to the workforce and an increased need to see that proprietary or sensitive information and client details are not accidentally or maliciously leaked also mean that companies these days need tools to monitor what their employees do during company time.

This isn’t just restricted to monitoring what websites employees may visit or whether they are on social media or YouTube.

It also means that employers know what projects have been assigned to which employees and how much time is being spent on such projects and can figure out methods to improve their productivity.

So, without further ado, here is a tool that help employers with remote employee monitoring.

iMonitor EAM
If you don’t want to get too intrusive when it comes to monitoring your workers and their productivity, but you still want to keep tabs on their productivity and what they’re doing while on the company’s time, this software is something you should look into. Also, if you find it difficult to utilize monitoring software data to improve employee performance, iMonitor EAM again can help.

The software monitors productive and non-productive time by monitoring how much time an employee spends on which applications. You can decide and enter into the software what applications are needed and productive. It shows you the productive and non-productive time in terms of bar graphs which are easy to  shows active or productive time and non-productive time.

In addition, many companies have resorted to use those simple employee monitoring software to not only manage but also monitor employees, track the time spent on projects, especially by part-timers or workers in remote locations, and how much work they have already done.

Increasingly, companies are coming to realize that merely blocking certain websites or even taking screenshots isn’t enough. If they are truly interested in improving worker productivity and reducing the amount of time that employees spends on non-productive activities, they need more.

They need to make sure employees are not stretching out the time spent on a particular task, that they aren’t accessing anything that could be deemed objectionable by other workers, that their clients’ information or any proprietary information is not compromised and that the company’s systems aren’t left vulnerable to malware and data theft because of the websites that the employees may have unwittingly visited. As such, an increased need for remote employee monitoring is definitely understandable.

It’s possible that someone has been reading your e-mails, listening to your phone calls, and tracking your Internet use. No, it’s not a foreign spy. It’s not even your ex—it’s your employer. And she doesn’t even need to tell you she’s doing it.

Employers can legally monitor their workers however they want. They can log and review all computer activity as long as they own the machines. The most popular method of keeping tabs on employees is to track Internet use: A whopping 66 percent of companies monitor employee Internet activity, according to a survey released in February by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute. What are they looking for? Frequent visits to sexually explicit sites, game sites, and social-networking sites like Facebook on company time. Almost a third of those who said they monitor their employees have fired someone for inappropriate Web surfing.

Even though a lot of companies have set up email policies for their employees, the trend of using the office Internet for receiving and sending non-work-related emails continues. Which makes many of us wonder whether employers can monitor employee emails or not?

Many employees are under the misconception that their employers do not have the right to monitor the emails and websites that they access through the workplace Internet. Employees also tend to incorrectly believe that their use and access of emails is private, and should not be breached by employers. However, the law appears to think differently on this matter.

In a world where trade secrets and business information are treated as ‘Intellectual Property’, it should come as no surprise that the emails being sent from the office is being surveilled. If employers can make their employees sign a nondisclosure and confidentiality agreement, they are well within their rights to monitor the office emails of their employees as well.

Is Email Monitoring Legal?

In the past, multiple lawsuits have been filed by employees against private employers, based on invasion of privacy rights and the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of ‘unreasonable searches and seizures’ by government agents, government employers, and supervisors. The courts have sided with employers, and deemed the act of monitoring employee emails an employer privilege, provided a notice is given to the employees about this company practice.

In 2000, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the right of the employer to conduct electronic audits as per its company policy. In the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case of Michael A. Smyth vs. The Pillsbury Company, 914 F. Supp. 97 (E.D. Pa. 1996), using the grounds of balancing-of-interests test, the court decided in favor of the company’s interest, thereby allowing employers to prevent inappropriate and unprofessional behavior pertaining to email communications or Internet usage by employees. Thus, employees can claim no right to privacy for non-work-related activities being carried out at the workplace, especially if the employer has disallowed employees from doing so through an email and Internet policy.

Employers Must Have An Email Policy

The employer must have a clearly written email policy in place, and must notify the employees of their practice of monitoring employee emails. Thus, once the employees have been notified about the company policy on monitoring emails, they cannot claim rights under reasonable expectation of privacy.

Companies that impose such monitoring must maintain an employee handbook that explicitly mentions the company’s policies on email monitoring and other restrictions. Such a handbook usually explains in detail about the extent of monitoring being practiced by the company. It also informs the employees not to expect privacy while dealing with emails during work. Such a handbook stating the company’s policy is considered to be a sufficient step towards notifying the employees.

Federal Law Allows Email Monitoring
The federal law of Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) does not afford employees the privilege of claiming privacy protection for non-work-related emails and Internet usage. The email can be intercepted, as long as it is in transit, and emails can be audited as well. However, the ECPA restricts employers for intentionally intercepting emails that are stored on the computer server. This ban on email interception has three exceptions, which gives companies the right to monitor the emails of their employee. The following exceptions that allow monitoring employee usage of emails are:

1. Consent exception: When the employee reads and acknowledges the email monitoring policy given by the employer.
2. Provider exception: The employer must be the sole provider of the system on which the employee works, and not a third-party servicer. Therefore, employers are allowed to examine emails on the systems provided by them to the employees.
3. Ordinary-course-of-business exception: This exception allows employers to monitor emails sent during the ordinary course of a workday, and includes both work-related and personal emails that were sent from an office system.

The aforementioned exceptions and the employer’s right to intercept emails were enforced in the 1993 case of Bourke vs. Nissan Motor Corp., in U.S.A., in which Nissan won the case. Using intercepted emails, Nissan was able to prove that it had not violated the privacy or unfairly dismissed two employees for sharing sexually explicit emails at the workplace.

Employers must not delay in implementing such an email policy, as such a policy can act as a handy tool against privacy claims, and prevents sensitive business information from being breached or leaked.

So that means, as the owner, we could choose some employee monitoring software, like the iMonitor EAM or iMonitor Keylogger Pro,  to help you improve employee work efficiency and productivity.

Do you know what your employees are doing on the Web? At a minimum, they’re probably goofing off watching YouTube videos. At worst, they could be steering your company toward financial ruin. In this quick guide, I’ll show you how to keep an eye on employee Internet use and monitor just about everything else they do with their PCs.

I can already hear the groans of disgruntled readers as I type these words (and if you’re worried about privacy at work, you have ways to stop your boss from spying on you). But gone are the days when PC monitoring was an optional, draconian security measure practiced only by especially vigilant organizations. Today, more than three-quarters of U.S. companies monitor employee Internet use. If your business is in the remaining quarter that doesn’t do so, you’re probably overdue for a policy change.

Why You Should Monitor
Everything your team does on company time–and on company resources–matters. Time spent on frivolous Websites can seriously hamper productivity, and visiting objectionable sites on company PCs can subject your business to serious legal risks, including costly harassment suits from staffers who may be exposed to offensive content.

That doesn’t look like work to me. iMonitor can give you a real-time look at employees’ screens.
Other consequences may be far worse than mere productivity loss or a little legal hot water. Either unintentionally or maliciously, employees can reveal proprietary information, jeopardizing business strategy, customer confidentiality, data integrity, and more.
And, of course, unchecked Web activity can expose your network and systems to dangers from malware and other intrusions. Even something as simple as a worker’s failure to keep up with Windows patches can be a threat to your business, so don’t think of monitoring as merely snooping.

Employee Monitoring Software
Employee monitoring is just one facet of a larger discipline known as endpoint security, which includes everything from malware protection to policy enforcement and asset tracking. Large enterprise computing environments demand comprehensive endpoint-security systems, consisting of server software coupled with client software on each user’s machine, that can handle many of these functions at once. These systems tend to be complex enough to require the expertise of a trained IT pro. But in this guide, I’ll be looking primarily at simpler tools designed for smaller organizations.

For a small business, you have several good ways to achieve endpoint security. You can install a Web-hosted system that combines software on the PC with remote monitoring services to protect your computers and enforce compliance with company policies. You can combine a few complementary tools, such as a desktop security suite and professional tracking software. Or, if your company is very small and your budget is tight, you can adopt free tools à la carte.

Symantec’s cloud-based endpoint-protection service can monitor all of your company’s PCs with minimal setup time.
The most secure way to monitor PC use is to deploy a system that consists of a host, server, or appliance together with client-installed software. Unless you have a dedicated IT staff or the budget to bring someone in on a regular basis to check on things, a cloud-based service–such as Symantec.cloud or Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security–is probably the best choice. These services are relatively inexpensive and easy to set up compared with server offerings, and they give you the flexibility to set and monitor compliance with acceptable-use policies from a single management interface. They also deploy system security updates automatically, block malware, and protect sensitive files to prevent data from leaking out of your company. Better still, these hosted systems effectively protect laptops that frequently leave the office.
The cost for a hosted endpoint-security service is generally very low: A five-client license for Trend Micro Worry-Free will set you back less than $300 for two years.

If you’re not up for a total security overhaul and you just want to track user activity on a few systems, you have several affordable ways to go about it. Packages such as Interguard Sonar can monitor all e-mail and IM sessions, track and filter Web usage, log users’ keystrokes and program use, and capture screenshots on command for as little as $87 per user.

If you’re really on a shoestring budget, plenty of free and open-source tools can log PC and Web use. A freebie called iMonitor, for instance, can keep tabs on which applications your staffers are using and which sites they’re visiting, complete with simple reports that give you a pretty clear idea as to how employees are spending their time on their PCs. A word of caution on stand-alone tools, though: Some antimalware utilities can quickly identify and disable stand-alone monitoring tools, so you may need to create an exception in your malware protection settings to ensure that iMonitor can work properly on your systems.

Best Practices
It should go without saying that employee monitoring ought to be just one small component in a comprehensive strategy to protect your business and maintain productivity. Once you’ve made the choice to monitor, you should follow these general guidelines to ensure your success.

Be forthright: Nobody likes being spied on unwittingly. Unless you think someone on your team poses a serious threat that requires covert monitoring, it’s best to be up front with staffers about what you track and why. Many companies accomplish this with a simple statement in the employee handbook telling workers plainly that everything they do on company computers, including individual keystrokes, can and will be tracked. Letting employees know that their behavior is being monitored can serve as a powerful deterrent against unwanted online activity.

Filter proactively: Most good endpoint-security tools include Web and e-mail content filters that can block inappropriate sites and prevent users from sending or receiving files that can jeopardize your business. Use them. By limiting the ways your staffers can get into trouble, you can prevent problems up front.

Check reports regularly: There’s little point in generating usage reports if you’re not going to look at them. Take the time to at least spot-check the reports that your monitoring software generates so that you can identify potential problems early and take remedial action. Whatever you discover–whether it’s a time-wasting Website that everyone is watching this week or a single person who is addicted to solitaire–you can often fix problems with a simple e-mail that tells your team you know what’s up: “Just a reminder, people: Chatroulette is not an appropriate use of company time.”

Management is nothing more than motivating other people.
– Lee Iacocca

In an organization, a conference call was going on between the different team members, some of whom were located at the headquarters, while others had joined in from remote regional offices. The manager kept on distinguishing between the people working from the headquarters and the regional offices by using the phrase “us and them” throughout the call. This led to bias among the team members. A good manager would have ensured that all the team members were treated as equals and addressed in the same way.

Managing remotely located employees can be a task in itself. Not only is it difficult to keep a tab on the work of the remote employees, the assessment of their performance can also be tedious. Often, remote employees harbor emotions of distrust, demotivation, perceived unfairness, and lack of appreciation for their efforts.

As a manager, you will have to ensure that you engage remote employees, and encourage them to approach you with their problems. You should let go of your fear of ‘what are they doing at work?’ as long as they achieve the desired results. This Buzzle article intends to make you aware about effective remote employee management.

 
Tips for Effective Remote Employee Management
 
Communicate Your Goals
It is important that all employees, whether at headquarters, a remote location, or working from home, be aware about the goals of the organization, and the teams they represent. If this is not clear, they may not feel motivated to work collectively towards the accomplishment of the goals. This is especially crucial for employees working from regional offices or home, as they should be aware about the long-term and short-term goals of the organization.
 
Be Result Oriented
It is important that you have a result-oriented approach when dealing with employees who are not located near you. Whatever the task you allot them, you should ensure that it gets completed before the deadline. For this, you may ask them to report their progress to you every day. This will not only help keep a tab on the completion of work, but also allow you to give feedback from time to time to reduce re-work. Also, gone are the days when managers dictated the employees to work as they pleased. Accord them the freedom of working creatively, as long as they achieve the desired result.

Effective Communication
It is important that all the team members are on the same page. Hence, it is crucial that there is effective communication between all the team members. This can be done with the help of video conferencing, teleconferencing, email, chat, phone messengers, etc. You can also share files easily through Skype. There are various software which will help assign tasks to the employees. This will not only allow remote employees to stay in touch with the rest of the team, but it will also foster clarity in communication.

Clarity in Responsibilities
If you expect the remotely-located employees to read your mind, then you are going to be sorely disappointed. Give them a clear picture of your expectations. There should be absolutely no ambiguity in the roles and responsibilities of the remote employees, because they are not present at headquarters. Any misunderstanding in duties can cause a delay in the completion of a task. Hence, it is important that they have clarity about their duties and responsibilities.

Insist on Collaboration
It may so happen that employees located at remote locations may be left out during meetings and discussions. Hence, you will have to ensure that there is some collective interaction of the team through a conference call every day. It can be sharing of innovative ideas, or something related to work. It is essential that there is regular interaction between the entire team so that the company benefits from the collaboration.

Translate Organizational Culture
All the employees, including the remotely located ones, should be aware of the organizational culture. They should know about the values, policies, and work ethics followed by the organization. Newsletters, magazines, employee engagement, and announcement emails, etc., of the organization should reach these employees as well. As a manager, it is your duty to make remote employees aware about the organizational culture, which should be uniform throughout the entire organization.

Express Trust
Make it a point that you appreciate the efforts of the remote staff from time to time, to engage them and build trust. Express your belief in their talent, values, and work ethics. This will help strengthen the bond between both the teams. Not only will it motivate the remote employees, but it will also encourage them to put in their best efforts. Whenever possible, try to reward good work executed by remote employees. This will help you to build trust.

Give Regular Feedback
As these employees are at different locations, there may be chances that the work may not get completed as required. Hence, it is advisable to set objectives, monitor the executed work, and give feedback for it. By giving suggestions or feedback, you will be able to control the flow of work as well as its accuracy. Moreover, timely feedback will ensure that the work is on the right track.

Have Standardization
Whether it is policies, procedures, or processes, ensure that they are standardized throughout the organization. You cannot be biased when it comes to policies. If an employee who is working at a remote location gets warning about being lax at work, the same policy should also apply to people working at headquarters as well. Also, if you have the work flow or process documented, it will help remotely-stationed employees to follow the process and hierarchy. This will help in smooth functioning of the work.

Be Accessible
While in an office you can always stop by an employee’s desk and have a chat with him; this may not be possible for a remotely located employee. Schedule a telephone call, or send an email every now and then to inquire about him. Don’t let distance lead to ‘Out of sight, out of mind’. Whenever the employees need your help, you must be available-by phone, email, SMS or video conference. As the employees are located at a distance, it becomes even more important for you to be available for them whenever they need to consult you for flawless completion of tasks.

Help them in Networking
While water cooler conversations are not possible in case of remote employees, it is important that the team members network with each other to improve the strength of the team. This can be done through the company’s social intranet or get-togethers, which should be arranged every few months. You can even set up an intranet team page or build a virtual team room. You can celebrate e-birthdays, share photos, personal information, etc. You can even use webcams to communicate with each other. This will also lead to some informal conversation and bonding among the team members.

Detect and Resolve Problems
Sometimes, you may observe a drop in the performance, lack of motivation, unresponsiveness, dissatisfaction with work, improper tone of communication, etc., in a remote employee. All these are indicators of a problem. You will have to interact with the employee and inquire about his problems related to work. Many times due to rumors, like the employees in headquarters being given a higher raise or better opportunities for career advancement, there is a general dissatisfaction and feeling of injustice among remotely located employees. You will have to speak to them and resolve their problems and issues.

The key to managing remotely-located employees is to engage them. If the employees speak in a different language, ensure that the others talk slowly during the conference call. This will help them to comprehend the language. Be sensitive towards their language preference. Ensure that you are always in touch with remotely located employees. You must make them aware that their contribution is important for the growth of the organization. Give them performance-based rewards, and appreciate their good work. Many times, remote employees feel isolated and lose motivation; you will have to inspire them to work efficiently by using your leadership skills.

Ok, I know that it’s not every office that has a decenter in it, but I suspected that I had an employee who was passing off what I will call “trade secrets” from my office to another company. Now, I’m not the person who won’t let employees leave to go work for someone else. I mean, if you want a new job, that’s cool. However, when you are passing information to a competitor hoping for a lucrative job offer, that’s something I cannot abide.

Anyways, the office manager and I had ideas about who this “mole” could be, but we were not sure. When everyone went home for the day, we went through and installed the employee monitoring software on every computer in the office and kept constant watch for emails and such from the guilty party to a competitor. Oddly enough, we found that there were many instances of a lack of productivity, but there was nothing that seemed troublesome.

After a few days, we wondered if were just being paranoid. Instead of uninstalling the software, we simply let the software keep working for a little while longer. It was one day that we saw an odd configuration of typing that seemed like it was going in a word document. We figured it was a code, and when we confronted the employee over this alleged “code” the employee confessed.

Unfortunately, we had to let the employee go. At least they had another job waiting for them, but we’re glad that we downloaded the software. Afterwards, we simply let the program go and did not inform the staff. However, with everyone wondering if they were being monitored, productivity improved over the next few weeks. We wanted to catch a “mole”, but we also get more out of our employees at the same time.

We have iMonitor to thank for the advanced performance of our business!

NEW YORK, March 16 (Reuters) – A former Federal Reserve Bank of New York employee was spared prison on Wednesday, disappointing prosecutors who said his leaking of confidential documents to a friend at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) justified time behind bars.

Jason Gross, 37, was fined $2,000 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein in Manhattan and sentenced to a year of probation with 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of theft of government property.

Prosecutors had sought six to 12 months in prison for Gross, who in November admitted to providing confidential information to Rohit Bansal, his former supervisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York who had left to work at Goldman Sachs.

But while Gorenstein said Gross had abused the position of trust he had at the New York Fed, his conviction coupled with the loss of a career had already sent “a powerful message to others.”

The case highlighted the so-called revolving door on Wall Street, in which regulators take new jobs at the banks they formerly oversaw.

The charges were announced after Goldman Sachs agreed in October to a related $50 million settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services.

According to prosecutors and New York regulators, Bansal obtained numerous documents from Gross after joining Goldman Sachs in July 2014.

Those documents included some pertaining to examinations of a bank that Goldman was advising about a potential transaction, regulators said.

Bansal shared some of the documents with others at Goldman, regulators and prosecutors said, telling them in at least one instance, “Please don’t distribute.”

In court, Bruce Barket, Gross’s lawyer, said Gross in providing Bansal the documents thought he was doing a favor for a friend who had already seen them and even created some.

“I don’t think he thought much of it,” Barket said.

Goldman has said that after discovering Bansal obtained the confidential supervisory information, it notified regulators and fired him and a more senior employee who failed to take further action. The New York Fed also fired Gross.

Bansal pleaded guilty in November to theft of government property. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday.

Illegally disclosing customer’s data or companies’ confidential by employee is happening all the time at companies everywhere. In order to prevent the unethical behavior,  the companies should do the following:

1. Enhance education on the code of conduct in the business and confidential agreement.
2. Strengthen security of customer archives and business confidential, preventing from any losing.
3. The employee monitoring software is necessary, which can prevent confidential crisis and grantee data security. Help companies take steps before the data losing.

The monitoring software is just one means to keep the customer’s data and companies’ confidential safe. The more actions like optimize the management system and improve the staffs’ comprehensive quality are the key point to reduce data leaking happened.

iMonitor:
Hello, How may I help you?
Customer:
Hello
I am interested in using your computer monitoring services in my company.
I have a few questions before that though.
iMonitor：
Ok,what’s that?
Customer:
First of all, i would like to know if it can record remote desktop sessions.
iMonitor:
Sorry,It can not be recorded.
Customer:
Oh thank you very much, it was a bit blurry on the website and i thought it’s an option.
iMonitor:
You mean windows Remote Desktop?
Customer:
I think it’s the same thing not a very tech person.
But it’s an international company and i have people working.
From all around the world.
Connecting remotely.
So yes windows remote desktop
iMonitor:
Windows Remote Desktop session can not be recorded, but you can see the screenshots.
Customer:
I understand, thank you very much
iMonitor:
I suggest you download the free trial to make a test.
Customer:
OK, I will.
Have a great rest of the day.
iMonitor:
Same here.

iMonitor:
Hello, what can i do for you?
Customer:
Hello there.
I’m looking for employee computer monitoring software,
Can this software be used in a foreign country?
iMonitor:
Yes, you can.
Customer:
We need to monitor 65 employee computers, 10 server computers, which means that 10 computers to share monitoring 65 computers.
iMonitor:
No problem.
Customer:
After the purchase, how do I get the software?
iMonitor:
After your purchase, we will send the full version download link to you via e-mail.
Customer:
What about the after service?
iMonitor:
We provide one year free version upgrades and free lifetime technical support for users who already purchased.
Customer:
Is there any trial version?
iMonitor:
Yes, here is the free version download link for :
http://www.imonitorsoft.com/download.htm
Customer:
Okay, thank you.
Customer:
You can try it for 15 days, monitor up to 2 computers.
Customer:
About the Payment, is the bank transfer supported?
iMonitor:
Yes,bank transfer is OK.
Customer:
We are using LAN,can I see the monitored computer’s Live desktop?
iMonitor:
Yes, you can. Our software has this feature.
Customer:
Great !
iMonitor:
And you can view multiple desktops simultaneously.
Customer:
Perfect ! Thank you.
I will come to you again if I have a problem .
iMonitor:
OK, please feel free to inquire.

iMonitor:
Hello, How may I help you?
Customer:
Hi,I have purchased keylogger and installed it as well.
I purchased 12 licences.
Now, i have installed the agent and trying to block website but it seems not working.
iMonitor:
Please close all open browsers, then open again to test
Customer:
i did that.
iMonitor:
HTTP site or HTTPS site?
Customer:
I tried with http and https both.
iMonitor:
Maybe you can restart the monitored computer then test again.
Which website do you want to block?
Customer:
facebook.
yahoo.
and some others also.
iMonitor:
Facebook is https.
Customer:
How about yahoo?
iMonitor:
I think yahoo will be OK, can I remote to your computer to check this issue?
Customer:
Sure.
You want teamviewer?
iMonitor:
Yes.
Customer:
OK.

……

iMonitor:
OK, Can you block facebook now?
Customer:
OK, great !
It seems working.
what was the issue?
iMonitor:
No issue, you have to wait several minutes after you deploy the rule.
Customer:
Ok.
iMonitor:
Please email us If you installed new computer.
We will assgin your license to new added computer.
Customer:
OK.
So what to email?
For now i have added only one computer.
iMonitor:
Your account ID and computer name.
Customer:
But i’m going to install on others also.
iMonitor:
To support@imonitorsoft.com
Customer:
OK,I will email once i finished installation in all computer.
iMonitor:
OK.