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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.
