Category: Musings

On Average, 28 Percent of Employees Are Transferring Company Information via Personal Email, Personal Cloud File Share Accounts and USB Storage Devices

VERO BEACH, FL–(Marketwired – Sep 24, 2013) – SpectorSoft today released results of its recent survey, revealing that 23 percent of enterprises have suffered from an insider-driven data breach; on average, 28 percent of employees are using personal cloud email, file-sharing accounts and USB storage devices to transfer corporate data; and intellectual property (IP) is among the most frequently breached data types. The survey, conducted in August, polled 419 enterprise respondents and 200 full-time end-user employees, all from U.S.-based organizations. Both sets of respondents worked in companies of various sizes and within multiple industries.

“This survey reveals that the insider threat is alive and well, that employers haven’t yet figured out how to discourage or prohibit unsafe data handling practices, and that enterprises’ most valuable data is at risk,” said Jason Judge, CEO, SpectorSoft. “To protect themselves against the insider threat, organizations need visibility into precisely what their employees are doing, something that can’t be captured with traditional technologies.”

Additional survey findings drawn from enterprise respondents include the following:

• 77 percent have policies against employees using corporate computers for personal use.
• 98 percent have discovered employees visiting non-work-related websites with company computers.
• 47 percent discovered that former employees took information with them when they left the company.
• 44 percent of the time, insider-driven breaches include intellectual property, business plans, technology designs, M&A information and information that corporate policy says should not be sent outside of the organization.
• 53 percent of enterprise respondents have discovered that employees are using company-issued devices to send various types of company information to personal email accounts and cloud-based file-sharing accounts such as Box, DropBox or Hightail (Formerly YouSendIt).

Additional survey findings drawn from employee respondents include the following:

• 33 percent transfer corporate information via personal Yahoo! email and Gmail accounts.
• 23 percent transfer corporate information using Box, Dropbox or Hightail (Formerly YouSendIt).
• 28 percent transfer corporate information using USB storage devices.

For more details on the survey findings please access the full report at http://www.spector360recon.com/report.

May 23, 2013

SpectorSoft, the leader in employee monitoring solutions, today revealed results of its Non-Private Lives of American Employees survey, detailing how 91 percent of employees accept and in some cases even welcome having their computer activities and behaviors monitored by their employers during work hours. SpectorSoft conducted the survey in Q4 2012, polling 300 respondents who were 18 and over and employed full time. Respondents worked in a broad range of industries in organizations of all types and sizes.

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VERO BEACH, FLA. – May 23, 2013 – SpectorSoft Corporation, the leader in employee monitoring solutions, today revealed results of its Non-Private Lives of American Employees survey, detailing how 91 percent of employees accept and in some cases even welcome having their computer activities and behaviors monitored by their employers during work hours. SpectorSoft conducted the survey in Q4 2012, polling 300 respondents who were 18 and over and employed full time. Respondents worked in a broad range of industries in organizations of all types and sizes.

“This survey reveals that businesses desiring to strengthen security, improve efficiency and stop bleeding millions in lost productivity need to find ways to control employees’ use of corporate computing resources during work hours,” said Nick Cavalancia, vice president at SpectorSoft. “The fact that employees’ attitudes are changing when it comes to privacy has provided organizations with an open window to start implementing monitoring programs that ensure employees aren’t taking advantage of acceptable computer-use policies or engaging in behaviors that put data and efficiency at risk.”

In addition to revealing changing attitudes among U.S. employees when it comes to privacy and the workplace, the survey also showed that employees’ non-work-related computer activities are costing businesses millions of dollars in lost productivity annually. Fifty-nine percent of respondents engage in personal activities on computers while at work, admitting that they spend an average of 2.75 hours per week doing so. This means that employees are spending 137.5 hours per year (assuming a 50-week work year) engaged in personal activities on company computers. These numbers reveal staggering conclusions:

• 100-employee businesses have productivity losses of 13,750 hours annually, equivalent to paying seven full time employees to do nothing all year (Tweet This)
• 1,000-employee businesses have productivity losses of 137,500 hours annually, equivalent to paying 69 employees to do nothing all year (Tweet This)
• 5,000-employee businesses have productivity losses of 687,500 hours annually, equivalent to paying 344 employees to do nothing all year (Tweet This)

The graphics below illustrate hourly and financial losses based on company size.

The above graph shows financial loss due to employees engaging in personal computer activities.

The above graph shows hours wasted measured in number of full-time, unproductive employees.

These losses are shocking. A review of estimates out of the U.S. Census Bureau over the past several years shows that the approximate average wage of employees across nine educational levels (ranging from some high school to professional degree holders) could be as high as $28 per hour. When applying the 137.5 hours wasted per year per employee, companies with 10,000 employees stand to lose as much as $38,500,000 in productivity annually due to personal computer use during company time.

The above graph shows the number of hours wasted annually by companies of different sizes.

In addition to the above charts, SpectorSoft has produced an infographic showing the key findings from the survey available at www.spectorsoft.com/nonprivatelives.pdf. Key findings include:

• 75 percent of employees accept that employers may monitor their computer activities.
• 16 percent of employees are “glad” their employers monitor their computer activities.
• 9 percent of employees were “mad” about being monitored during working hours.
• 49 percent of employees said their employers monitored their computer activities.
• 69 percent of employers that have Internet Acceptable Use Policies (IAUP) monitor employees.
• 15 percent of employers that do not have IAUPs monitor employees’ activities.

“The security vs. privacy argument has certainly heated up. Capitol Hill is in the thick of debating perceived anti-privacy clauses in the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, privacy rights advocates are calling for increased protections, and the mainstream media is clamoring to point a finger at big brother,” said Cavalancia. “Our survey of 300 workers makes it clear that when it comes to the workplace, employers are free to move forward with monitoring solutions that will reduce risks as well as increase productivity.”

For more information on SPECTOR 360 7.5 visit: www.spector360.com

Award Winning Employee Monitoring Software Now Available for the Expanding Citrix Ecosystem

VERO BEACH, FL – Apr 30, 2013 – SpectorSoft Corporation, the leader in employee monitoring solutions, today announced that its flagship product, Spector 360, has been awarded the “Citrix Ready” designation, signifying that Spector 360 is compatible with XenApp and other third-party applications within the Citrix ecosystem. The Citrix Ready program helps customers identify third-party solutions that are recommended to enhance virtualization, networking and cloud computing solutions from Citrix Systems, Inc.

To achieve its Citrix Ready designation, Spector360 successfully passed a series of tests that verified its ability to interoperate with XenApp. Customers using Spector 360 in a XenApp, environment can detect, record and be alerted to insider threat activities that occur within a published desktop or application, which allows them to strengthen defenses against data loss, data theft and employee fraud. With Spector 360, customers can also ensure the efficiency of their workforce by gaining insight into employee digital activities.

“In this world of constant connectivity, where employees are utilizing many different devices to conduct business, working remotely and conducting business on the road, it is imperative that organizations have visibility into what those employees are doing during the work day as well as what they are doing with sensitive corporate data,” said Jason Judge, CEO of SpectorSoft. “While Citrix technology provides solutions to enhance employee productivity, organizations also need to ensure the security and integrity of company data and resources. Spector 360 coupled with Citrix solutions does just that.”

“Customers can deploy Spector 360 to ensure security and compliance objectives are met when using Citrix technologies,” said Mehul Trivedi, senior director of product management for SpectorSoft. “We are committed to working closely with our technology partners to provide the best customer experience and offer our channel partners new revenue opportunities with a proven employee monitoring solutions that protect them against insider threats.”

More information on how Spector 360 works within a Citrix environment, visit www.spector360.com/solutions/citrix.html or www.citrix.com/ready/en/spectorsoft/spector-360.

About Citrix
Citrix®, CitrixReady® and XenServer®, XenDesktop®, XenApp® and NetScaler® are registered trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

January 15, 2013

SpectorSoft Corporation, the leader in employee monitoring solutions, today announced availability of SPECTOR 360 7.5. With this latest version, organizations using SpectorSoft solutions can extend granular monitoring, recording and alerting over all employee activities taking place on devices running Windows and Mac OSs and company-issued BlackBerry smartphones.

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October 1, 2012

Just in time to help kick off National Cyber Security Awareness Month, SpectorSoft’s Sr. Director of Online Safe, Lisa Shaw, offers insight into the growing, troubling behavior of Sexcasting. Shaw, who also is Sr. Director of ParentingTodaysKids.com a popular online resource dedicated to parenting in today’s digital world discusses how tweens and teens are moving beyond Sexting to Sexcasting, and offers tips on how parents can best deal with the issue.

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October 9, 2012

SpectorSoft Corporation, the leader in user activity monitoring software, today announced the acquisition of Corner Bowl Software and the availability of SpectorSoft Server Manager. With SpectorSoft Server Manager, SMBs, government agencies and enterprises can automate and centralize management of a wide range of IT issues associated with event logs, security events, server resources, applications and disk utilization.

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November 15, 2011

SpectorSoft announces an update of eBLASTER Mobile that now includes Geofencing capabilities. This new feature enables parents to know the whereabouts of their children and to create electronic location boundaries – or fences – that trigger an alert notification through their mobile device when their child enters or exits pre-defined areas. The Geofencing feature is available immediately for SpectorSoft’s eBLASTER Mobile for Android™ and eBLASTER Mobile for BlackBerry® software.

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November 1, 2011

The latest version of SPECTOR 360 improves organizational competitiveness with even more ease and automation. SPECTOR 360 features improved Auditing, More Granular Client-Side Alarms, plus Streamlined Setup and Stability.

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