SpectorSoft, a company which offers employee monitoring software for mobile devices and computers, has announced a new offering for BlackBerry which will allow employers to monitor all activity on the devices as well as employee computers. With the product, employers can monitor mobile and computer activities in real-time. SpectorSoft currently provides this service to a range of industries and several public sector clients.
Detailed employee monitoring for all leading corporate computing devices and operating systems allows SpectorSoft customers to gain unified visibility into employees’ digital and mobile activities and behaviors, including what information they are sharing, what they are communicating across messaging platforms, what websites they are visiting, and what applications they are accessing. This ability allows security teams to identify, address and immediately mitigate high-risk behaviors that can lead to costly data breaches, brand damage and business disruptions.
While this release is focused on BlackBerry, Nick Cavalancia, at SpectorSoft says in an interview with CivSource, that questions about RIM’s long term viability may be misplaced. He notes that from a security standpoint, Blackberry is still the only mobile platform that will allow companies like SpectorSoft to provide end-to-end monitoring. He explains that because of this most Fortune 500 companies and many public sector agencies are still Blackberry only shops. “With Android we have to go on an app-by-app basis,” he says. “iOS, and Apple just simply don’t offer the hooks into software that we need in order to to achieve the same level of service.”
Many state and local government IT shops are considering bring your own device (BYOD) plans as a means of cost-cutting and being more responsive to employee preference. These plans would ostensibly bring online more Androids and iPhones as they have eclipsed Blackberry in popularity, and arguably functionality. According to a recent study by Juniper Research, the number of BYOD devices is expected to double by 2014, and most public sector organizations still lack a viable plan for monitoring network security through external devices.
“Anytime you go to a bring your own device plan, you’re allowing security vulnerabilities, and you’re going to limit the amount of monitoring power you have. Any enterprise or public sector office considering these plans needs to take those factors into account,” Cavalancia says.
Rather than presenting the service as an additional application, SpectorSoft pulls its information directly from the server and can run in a stealth mode without employees knowing that they are being monitored. Cavalancia explains that some management teams may opt to implement SpectorSoft in this way just to get a sense of overall user habits in their offices or they may be open about it and release a workplace privacy policy that explains how employees will be monitored.
“Risk associated with employee digital behavior is forcing businesses to acknowledge that the only way to preserve security is to closely monitor all activities, communications, and information access and sharing that takes place,” he says, noting that the same is also true for public sector organizations.
SPECTOR 360 7.5 offers Windows and Mac computer monitoring, and on Blackberry, can monitor and record call data, chat conversations and emails sent and received. SpectorSoft has full BES server integration and monitoring data is drawn from the same source as the operational and systems management information. The monitoring functions also report back on which pages or applications are being actively used and which are left idle and for how long.
