Understanding Real-Time User Activity Monitoring And Its Benefits!
User activity monitoring solutions are the tools that help in monitoring and tracking the user behavior on any device, network, or IT-owned resources. It is popular in many organizations/industries these days for surveillance purposes. These tools can track the overall work performance of the users/employees and report it to the admin/employer whenever required for detecting any malicious or suspicious activities like insider threats or illegal internet activities.
By deploying user activity surveillance software, an organization can more readily identify suspicious behavior and alleviate risks before they result in data infringements, or at least in time to lessen damages. It assists as a proactive analysis of end-user activity to delimit misuse of access perquisites or data protection policies, either through ignorance or spiteful intent.
How Does User Activity Monitoring Tools Work?
The purpose of such tools is to protect the sensitive and confidential information of an organization while ensuring availability and agreement with data privacy and security regulations. But it doesn't function like a simple monitoring tool, but it goes beyond it! It can monitor all types of user activities, like:
Internet usage behavior
Download history
Accessing unauthorized files/information
Video recording of sessions
Screenshot capturing
Kernel monitoring and much more
All of the above information captured by a tool can be stored and later viewed and accessed by the assigned authority at any given point in time. It is also helpful in determining workforce productivity.
Let us now discuss various benefits of user activity monitoring tools.
Here are some of the benefits of using a user activity monitoring software/tool/solutions:
Provides assurance that the employees are not messing up with a company's confidential data or leaking them to other rivalries when they leave.
You can immediately detect and investigate suspicious user activity
Helps to have real-time identification along with detailed reporting of historical activity
Reduces the risk of inappropriate actions that can lead to malware infections or data breaches
Decreases the cost of compliance while offering intelligence needed to improve security measures
Analyzing the data should be based on the associated risks, defined policies, time of day, and identity context
The Core Benefits Of User Activity Monitoring Software
Cybersecurity: It is one of the prime advantages of deploying employee monitoring software. It provides strong cybersecurity by keeping a close and constant watch on every employee and their work behavior during office hours. In case of any suspicious activities, the software provides notifications to the higher-level authority.
Legal compliance and policies: There are a set of rules and regulations that everyone has to follow in every company. With employee activity monitoring software, you have this rule-based alert mechanism to create rules to implement the policy. It has an auto alert system, which sends out the report to users whenever someone disregards the policies.
Employee productivity: It allows you to monitor the overall work performance of the entire workforce. It is a great way to recognize the over-working and under-working employees and measuring their capabilities to assign them tasks/projects. While all the employees are working from home these days, it also tracks the remote working employees and their login/logout time.
Why Do We Need An Employee Activity Tracking Solution?
Since all of us are working remotely until the offices reopen, monitoring employees has become a mandated concern for all employers. It is not about distrusting employees but being sure that the desired level of productivity and goals are achieved even if the employees work from their home, sitting on a couch. The time flexibility has been granted to the workforce considering the current COVID-19 situation. There are so many difficulties already that a person undergoes, the reason why the time levy! But in return, an employee has to perform well and try to achieve his daily targets. Another concern is the fear of Insider threats. Such software detects any suspicious activities and reports them to the employer within no time.
Some Effective Tips For Proper User Activity Monitoring
Many IT security teams lack perceptibility into how their users are accessing plus utilizing sensitive data, leaving them susceptible to insider threats or outside attackers who have gained access to systems. Best exercises for user activity monitoring include:
Make sure that all the employees of the surveillance methods and policies of your company.
It is even better to have their acknowledgment of the contractual bond between the business employer and employees.
Allow privileged access to information to the employees who need it for effective work production.
All other activities not required for a user work role should be limited. It is not necessary to give exempt users unlimited access. Also, the limitations can be executed for admin tools and system customs.
Decrease the number of distributed accounts and execute strong password policies.
Be alert about recognizing stolen credentials.
Manage remote access through company-based protocols. Deny protocol channels such as file transfers between group members, port-forwarding, and disk sharing.
Execute strict data policies for your organization to guarantee more reliable cybersecurity for your business.
Some Reliable Employee Activity Monitoring Tools For 2021
EMPMonitor
Time Doctor
ActivTrak
Inter Guard
Bamboo HR
Hubstaff
Also watch: EmpMonitor - Best Employee Monitoring Software
User activity monitoring is a prime component of data protection for all organizations today, looking at the current pandemic difficulties. Deploying an employee tracking software that combines all the features like data recovery and classification, policy-based controls, advanced reporting capabilities with identifying suspicious activities, and Insider threats.
