SpectorSoft Simplifies Snooping

Being nosy can be good for business. Although workplace privacy has become a hot-button issue for many unions and employee-rights groups, there are many legitimate reasons for an organization to want to know what’s happening on its computers. From industrial espionage, to sabotage, and workplace harassment suits, it’s not hard to understand the strong financial incentives that may exist for keeping tabs on employees' workstations.

SpectorSoft offers a pair of products that allow an IT department to observe virtually all activity on individual workstations. Spector Professional Edition and e-Blaster 3.0 are separate solutions to a common problem. Each offers an inexpensive way to monitor the actions and data running through a computer’s keyboard and screen.

Spector Professional’s enables administrators to virtually look over the shoulder of the workstation user and view snapshots of his or her screen, making it a wonderful tool for monitoring behavior of a suspicious employee. In contrast, e-Blaster is ideal for keeping an eye on general employee-side network interactions. It serves as the DEW (distant early warning) line, whereas Spector Pro provides the detail necessary to make a case or prove innocence.

View to a user

Spector Pro is designed to live on an end-user’s workstation and keep track of a variety of his or her activities. By default, the solution monitors Web browsing, mail, and Internet chat, and there are provisions for keeping up with Web sites visited, mail sent and received, and chats with other users. Further, Spector Pro can block access to specified Web sites.

The application tracks every keystroke entered on the keyboard, regardless of the application. It can be configured to alert an administrator via e-mail if certain keywords are received or typed, such as specific Web sites visited, specific individuals joined in chat, or specific words typed in to any application.

Finally, Spector Pro takes a snapshot of the screen at regular, preset intervals. The result is a thorough picture of the activity on a computer — a picture that the user may not even know exists.

Administrators can perform a stealth installation, which leaves no icons, no installation file, and no notice when the software loads on computer boot. They can then access the software with a hot-key combination that can be customized, and a password can be added for even more security.

Administrators can set an impressive number of monitoring parameters from within Spector Pro, including the type of graphics used to store captured snapshots, the frequency of snapshots, and how much storage space is used for storing the various captured files. Because the software will faithfully capture a great deal of information, it’s best for an administrator to think about exactly what he or she wants to see and how long it will be between reviews of the captured data, so as to avoid creating massive files that aren’t used.

Spector Pro’s report page allows an administrator to click through tabs that present Web sites visited, e-mail activity, chats, keystrokes, and the screen snapshots. The snapshots unfold across time, unreeling like a stop-motion movie of the user’s activities.