Using Internet Monitoring Software to Control Employee Internet Access

To supplement and enforce a company Internet Acceptable Use Policy, many IT managers are turning to Internet Monitoring Software in order to control Internet access by their employees. Internet Monitoring Software not only helps identify when, how, and who is using the Internet, it also saves companies money. Organizations such as government agencies, corporations, hospitals, schools and libraries throughout the world have tighter budgets and need to communicate to an International customer base, so focusing on bandwidth premiums has become more and more important. Some Internet monitoring software products also have the ability to monitor bandwidth, and control employee Internet access, and also control access to any executable program that resides on employee workstations. With Internet monitoring software, IT managers can block access to games or file sharing programs and can set a daily time allotment for non-restricted programs.

Using Internet monitoring software to keep tight control over Internet access, IT managers can non-obtrusively watch everything employees are viewing on the Internet when they use a desktop, laptop, or server-centric device
. Without administrative permissions, the Internet monitoring software cannot be removed, or seen in the list of Windows control panel listing of programs on the computer.

IT managers and HR managers need to know what their employees are doing, not only from a cost standpoint, but also from a liability standpoint. Accordingly, Internet Acceptable Use Policies have been modified as technology and social practices change. Keeping up with the changes in these policies is much easier with the addition of Internet monitoring software. For instance, the software captures employee web browsing, file transfers, news, chat, IM, e-mail and web-mail, including all encoded attachments. This allows IT managers to receive an alert of abuse and conduct a comprehensive real-time review of email, chat and IM content. Managers have the option of controlling Internet access for a group of employees or a specific employee or computer. The software can be triggered by keywords, allow lists, block lists, or generally recognized types of blocked domains.

If an employee abuses the companies' Internet Acceptable Use Policies Internet Monitoring Software reports make it much easier to justify employee termination, pinpointing the time and offense. The software allows for tailored reports that document the policy abuses in a variety of forms. In this way, managers can enforce their Internet Acceptable Use Policy at the same time as they improve worker productivity. Internet monitoring software also cuts down on the threat posed when employees access unsafe websites, preventing harmful viruses or spyware from accessing company data.

Sue McCrossin is a freelance writer working with Pearl Software to promote awareness about Internet monitoring software used to control Internet access by employees.

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