Cyber security is one of the major issues that a large number of businesses and individuals encounter these days very often, and according to various statistics undertaken by reputed data security organizations, the incidents of data theft have actually increased over the past few years. In fact, a large number of data theft cases go unreported and this is a major issue that several businesses and individuals have been facing according to cyber patrol agencies.

The reason is simply that most such cases often go unnoticed and are discovered after a very long time. Businesses and individuals are now employing various technologies and safeguards for protecting themselves from data theft including software such as WebWatcher for this purpose.

Protecting your Business

As far as businesses are concerned, they need to protect their computers and information stored in them from three basic categories which are employees, contractors and hackers. There have been several incidents in which employee(s) of a company were involved in data theft incidents and were able to use their knowledge regarding the business’s security apparatus and network in order to fully access the system. As for as home based users are concerned, they are most under threat from hackers emanating from outside sources searching for passwords and credit card numbers and can incur major losses for you. IT security experts take into consideration to aspects of data theft incidents based on network security and divide them into two categories which are internal and external. This provides them a base for studying various security issues that businesses and individuals might face on a regular basis and try resolving them by providing more protection and ways to counter the loopholes.

Your Internal Information Needs to Stay Secure

Internal information as far as businesses are concerned relates to financial data or job records of various employees which are stored in files which are secured and inaccessible for outsiders. However, company insiders can easily access these records without having to type in any passwords and in the absence of any firewalls, they are able to steal the records or use it for their own interests. Such a person can easily store all the data on his personal storage device ranging from a CD to a simple flash drive very easily. This is a major data theft issue that a large number of businesses are facing these days and are taking steps to counter it. Apart from this issue, a large number of businesses are usually quite liberal about who can access their network files. A large number of departments can access the same file which can be quite dangerous indeed. Businesses are now working to compartmentalize their files in order to block data access and allow only those individuals to check it who have an interest which is favorable to the business in it. Businesses are also now giving importance to protecting data from getting copied and have installed software which disables ports into which a flash drive can be connected to.

Avoiding Data Leaks Through External Sources

One of the most significant data theft incidents relate emanate from external sources and this is a chronic problem which security experts have so far not really been successful in countering. In order to protect your computer from threats coming from external sources, it is necessary that you place network firewall and install software like WebWatcher on your computer to prevent common security breaches.

WebWatcher happens to a system control application which allows you to monitor and control all activities on your computer. It also works as a parental control tool and makes a recording of all the activities and prevents access to certain websites. It also keeps a watch on all the emails being sent to your computer and also performs filtering function. It records every information that is input into your computer thus saving your system and data from external threats.

Cyberbullying requires you to take Action

As a parent, you must be wondering what steps you would need to undertake in order to quell the threat of cyber bullying altogether. However, before you start tackling this issue, you need to understand what exactly is cyber bullying in the first place. It basically refers to acts of teasing, harassment and hazing that are being used in a different manner on cyberspace through the use of various instant messaging software, social networks and emails. A large number of kids have often complained that they ended up getting bullied on the internet by complete strangers with their parents being in denial about this issue. This does not mean that only strangers are involved but people your kids are familiar with can also be directly involved. Therefore it is very important that you are able to sharpen your vigilance on your kids while they are online in order to ensure their safety and gain more information regarding different acts of bullying taking place on the internet.

There are several steps that you can undertake in order to make the cyber experience for your child safe and sound. While you can put a limit on how much internet or computer your child can use, but you can not permanently block it out for him/her. Your child needs to use the internet for various purposes including for educational purposes, entertainment and also for communicating with his friends and others. Just like adults, kids also like to belong to a group of people who they can connect with and enjoy spending time. There are certain social networking websites which do not tolerate any kind of act or behavior which may fall under the definition of cyber bullying altogether. You can start by putting the computer your child is allowed to use in an area where you can keep an eye on most of the time.

Where Computer Monitoring Software comes into play

While for obvious reasons you can not watch your child every second, but what you can do is put your computer in a place where the members of your household often sit and socialize with each other. This will allow you the opportunity to not only keep an eye on your child at all times but also maintain a strong social bond between him and you. Secondly you need to develop your own internet plan for the family. This will provide a guidance as to how much time your child is allowed to spend time on the computer, what websites he can log on to and which social networks he can connect with. It is never a good idea to allow your child to create his own email account but if he does, it is necessary that you are able to monitor his activities and have his password listed with you.

While there are several ways through which you can put an end to cyber bullying, but you can also use certain parental software which have great features and have been primarily developed to counter this issue. One such software is PC Pandora which has been developed to monitor all the activities of your child online. It also contains various internet filtering capabilities together with a black listing and white listing capability. The best part is that your child will never be able to detect the operating of PC Pandora while he is using the computer and at the end you will be able to monitor his each activity. Also you can limit the amount your child can spend on a particular website through this parental software.

Cyber-slacking is a common office term now as the first generation of kids using the internet are starting to get more responsibility in the work world. Offices have to find creative solutions to prevent their employee’s from wasting a ton of time on the internet. Not only that, but if you have a child currently addicted to the internet then every day they are neglecting their social skills. Social ability is one of the most important things in this world and always will be. It is said that despite experience and education, first impressions are the number one factor that employers use to determine if they want to hire you or not. I don’t see this changing any time soon. There are also couples all over the world actually getting married over the internet through a video game. This is in my opinion completely unacceptable. In any case no parent wants to watch their child get married over a video game.

Another symptom of internet addiction is detachment from reality. It is common for people who spend too much time on the internet to develop social problems, but more and more people on the internet are losing their grip on reality. This can be scary for anyone considering how violent and chaotic the internet is. They lose their ability to empathize with other people and can cause some pretty serious damage if they are pushed over the edge.

We recommend using WebWatcher to gradually block off your loved ones use of the internet. Below is a screenshot showing the scheduling feature of WebWatcher. It is very easy and you can set any schedule for any user that you like.

Going after the problem at hand

Addiction to video games can also have social consequences. Children will often choose a virtual world over the real world because it is more interesting and has far less risk involved. It can cause poor choices in the future and a general detachment to reality. Your child may suffer from being socially challenged and struggle to fit in. Game addiction is shown to persist throughout a child’s life and cause problems in many areas of their life. Roughly fifty percent of adults addicted to videos games say that it causes a lot of strain on their marriage. Also the social ineptitude caused by this addiction will cause the problem to persist in the long term. It continues to get easier to stay in a virtual world then to face an increasingly challenging real world. So what is a parent to do?

Monitor their child, and prevent games from being ran

Computer Monitoring Software can be a very easy solution to this problem. If you have a child that is highly addicted to computer video games, any of the programs reviewed on our site will allow you to block any unwanted activities on your child’s computer, including video games. You can block any software that you want or simply set a time to block their computer activities completely.

Another perk of monitoring your child’s computer instead of taking it away is you can get an idea of how much work they have done remotely. All of their school work, video game play, and time wasted on social sites will be reported on to your computer. You can see what types of school work your child may be struggling with and maybe get an idea of why they are avoiding school so aggressively in the first place. You will also have proof of their slacking off if your child claims that his schoolwork is finished you will know better.

If your having this problem in your office then its time to apply some negative reinforcement, not punishment. Installing employee monitoring software on every computer will give them something to think about. They could browse Facebook all day instead of working, but what if the boss is monitoring their computer? How could they know? This alone will stop a huge chunk of productivity loss without ever having to leave your office.

Why not just use a firewall?

If the possibility of you monitoring doesn’t cut it, the software also has web filter options. You can simply block search terms and websites. Normal firewalls these days just wont cut it. Employees this day and age can easily circumvent the internet with their android phone. With employee monitoring software blocking the websites they cant go no matter what internet connection they are on.

Restricting user permission on a computer can be very ineffective. It can be impossible to prevent your employees from installing software and games. Employee monitoring software will block any attempts to install something. They wont even be able to launch an executable file if you restrict them.

When all else fails

Maybe your employees are distracted by something else. You have their computer in order, but they are still finding a way to waste time. They could be on their phone or just staring at the wall for hours. Employee monitoring software will be monitoring every keystroke on their computer with a time stamp. You will know which employees haven’t touched their keyboards in an hour. You can even estimate their typing speed and integrity. This will not only give you a better idea of which employees to let go, but also which ones might need a raise of responsibility.

If you run an office with computers there is simply no reason not to utilize this technology. Increase your office productivity while expanding the potential of your business at the same time. You can even try the software out in your entire office for free. Most of the top companies making this software offer a free trail. We recommend trying WebWatcher, but feel free to browse our top 5 list. We put together an extensive review cross examining the pros and cons of all the best software.

Features like the ability to search within the administrative interface for certain keywords or time spans makes WebWatcher easy to use for the parent. Quickly find the recorded data to check on the child’s behavior. With other programs, particularly with those that do not include the handy Search feature, sorting through recorded monitoring data may be a daunting task for the parent.

WebWatcher includes the best features that are found in many of the more costly parental control applications, yet this program is the easiest to learn and configure. Parents are able to access and view their child’s activities from any Internet connected computer and the monitoring data is stored in an online account. WebWatcher allows the parent to view their child’s computer activity in real time, or to record screenshots of active windows. WebWatcher is discreet, easy to install and configure and offered at a reasonable price. WebWatcher is a powerful and effective tool to enable parents to monitor and control their children’s computer activities.

For the best and most comprehensive parental control content monitoring application, WebWatcher has it all. The free trial option allows parents to evaluate the program and determine that WebWatcher is the most effective tool for their needs. We found WebWatcher to be a cut above the rest of the parental control software options.

For computer usage, software may be installed on the target computer that allows parents to monitor and limit their children’s usage of applications, visits to certain websites, views of obscenities, social networking behavior and other programs. Generally, parental controls are available in four forms: Usage controls, content filters, monitoring tools and computer usage management programs.

Content Filters

One of the first technologies that enable parents to impose over their children’s Internet and cable TV viewing behavior was the content filter. The V-Chip, introduced in the 1990s, allowed parents to control children’s ability to view explicit or violent cable programs. Content filtering software is also available to enable only age-appropriate viewing of web content, chat communications and social networking interactions. Today’s parental control content filters allow the parent to specify certain keywords when configuring the software. The software may be configured to disallow web pages with the specified keyword, or the keyword may simply be blocked with a series of characters, such as exclamation points, allowing the child to view the rest of the page.

Today’s content filtering software is sophisticated compared to early versions of parental control programs. Early versions of content filtering software was sometimes easily thwarted by tech-savvy children. New versions of parental control software have anti-hacking mechanisms in place, and filter content at the protocol level.

Content may be filtered for age-appropriate access. What may be perfectly acceptable for a 14 year old may be questionable material for viewing by a five year old child. Content filters are highly configurable and the parent is able to create profiles for more than one child with most content filtering software.

Content filtering functionality is available with many of the parental control content monitoring applications designed for computers. Many content monitoring programs allow parents to enter URLs, keywords and other specifiers that are used to limit content viewable by their child. Some content filters may be configured to simply notify the parent if a certain keyword is typed or website is accessed.

Content filtering provides a parent with a level of control over their child’s online behavior. However, some content filtering features, such as those included with the WebWatcher application, will filter content, both online and offline. Depending on the level of control the parent wishes to exercise, content filtering features in parental control software will enable the parent to control the content that the child is able to access on the computer.

Usage Controls

Usage controls are those parental controls that may be imposed to change a child’s behavior with regards to a mobile phone, TV, computer or even an automobile. Usage controls may be set for mobile devices that enable the device only during certain hours, or only for a limited amount of time during the day. Many TVs are now shipped with usage control options that allow parents to set limits on the times the TV may be on, or limit the amount of time the set may be on. Similar software is available for computers that will limit the availability of the machine to certain hours of the day. Usage controls designed for new drivers might limit the volume of the radio while the child is behind the wheel.

Monitoring Tools

Monitoring tools are commonly used to monitor children’s behavior on a target computer. Many monitoring programs are available that will enable a parent to view all aspects of a child’s behavior, including Internet sites visited, Instant Messaging chats, email, application accessed, as well as other online and offline behavior.

Many monitoring tools allow for remote monitoring of the target computer. In addition, many monitoring applications provide parents with additional functionality from the administrative control panel, such as the ability to log off the current user or the ability to reboot the machine.

Monitoring a child’s online and offline behavior is a good way for parents to make sure their child is safe while using a computer.

Computer Usage Management Programs

Computer usage management programs are software applications that are used by parents to enforce learning behavior in order to earn computer time for activities, such as gaming. These sophisticated management programs will award a child with a specified amount of computer usage time based on the amount of learning material covered.

Computer usage management programs are a creative way to reward a child for completing their homework, or finishing some pre-defined learning project, by allowing them to play computer games once the task is finished. Computer usage management programs may be configured to allow a certain amount of time to access the computer for gaming or other activities once the specified task has been completed.

Parental Controls for Smartphones and Mobile Devices

Parental controls may also be applied to smartphones and other mobile devices. In 1997, Verizon introduced age-appropriate content filters for their smartphones. Today, there are several options for parental controls on smartphones and other mobile devices. WebWatcher Mobile will allow parents to monitor and control their children’s smartphone activities, including texting behaviors.

Internet monitoring software has been in existence for quite some time. In the mid-1990s, applications began to emerge that were marketed to parents to help them limit their children’s access to questionable content. Early versions of monitoring software were not nearly as sophisticated and complete as the monitoring software available today.

Modern Internet Monitoring Software

Today’s Internet monitoring software may be very complex and sophisticated. For example, several Internet monitoring applications allow the parent to view the monitored computer screen in real time. The parent is able to view the child’s Internet behavior just as if they were watching the behavior on a TV screen. Other programs will take screenshots based on keywords entered into search engines. Other programs will take timed automatic screenshots of active windows.

All Internet monitoring software records online behavior in some way. Some applications use keyloggers. A keylogger is a program that records every single keystroke that occurs on the target computer. Other Internet monitoring programs will record everything from search terms to visited websites to Instant Messenger chats. Depending on the monitoring application, the program may be installed and managed remotely in many cases.

Stealth Internet monitoring applications will run undetected on the target computer so that the user of the monitored computer is not aware of the monitoring. Some monitoring programs allow parents to initiate actions on the target computer, such as logging off the current user or rebooting the machine. Some monitoring programs allow the parent to send messages to the child user, warning them that their online behavior is being monitored.

Are You Being Monitored?

Most Internet monitoring software is configurable so the parent is able to enter keywords, URLs and specifications according the age of the child. Most Internet monitoring programs allow parents to create profiles for multiple child users.

Though most Internet monitoring programs are marketed for parents to use to monitor and control their children’s online activity, these programs may also be used to spy on other users. Though most monitoring programs strongly advise against using their applications for malicious purposes, clearly the options are open for using such a program to catch a cheating spouse or for employers using the software to monitor the online behavior of employees. In most cases, however, employees are notified that their online behavior may be monitored, so the use of Internet monitoring software in the workplace should not come as any surprise.

Internet monitoring software is generally not expensive as most popular packages are priced under $100. Some monitoring software may be installed by disguising the installation program as an email attachment or associating the installation module with another program.

In any case, Internet monitoring software is widely used by parents and others to monitor the online behavior of users. Keep this in mind if you are one who tends to access Facebook on a work computer, or if you are doing anything illicit or sneaky. Internet monitoring software may be installed remotely, or by stealth means. Your own computer may even be monitored without ever triggering anti-malware applications, such as Norton Anti-Virus. In addition, many stealth monitoring programs are not even detected by the Windows Task Manager. Your online behavior may be monitored with Internet monitoring software!

Internet Monitoring Software for Mobile Devices

Internet monitoring software may also be installed to smartphones and mobile devices. Though a relatively new technology, monitoring programs are available for iPhones, Android-based devices, BlackBerries, iPads and other smart mobile devices. Many such programs run completely undetected by the monitored user.

WebWatcher Mobile is one application that enables remote monitoring of Internet usage and other behaviors on smartphones and mobile devices.

When to Start Protecting Children Online

It is never too soon to start protecting your child by monitoring and controlling their online behavior. A child may encounter any number of threats while using a computer. A young child may inadvertently encounter age-inappropriate content. After all, it is very easy for any user to accidentally stumble across a porn site. From the first time your child accesses the Internet, you should have parental controls in place that limit their access to questionable sites.

Interactive Internet applications pose a definite threat to children. Accessing chat rooms and Instant Messaging other users may put your child in contact with a child predator. Child predators know how to engage children by pretending to be children themselves, or appealing to a child’s insecurities or problems.

Several applications that allow parents to monitor and control their children’s online behavior are available on the market. Most parental control programs are fairly inexpensive, ranging from about $30 to about $150. Invest in a content monitoring and control program that gives a parent ways to monitor and limit their child’s access to unwanted sites and other activities.

Take the time to purchase, install and configure the parental control software that best meets your needs as a concerned parent.

Continue Monitoring Your Child’s Online Behavior

A recent study of parent controls found that parents often cease monitoring their children’s online activities at age 14. However, most children that are reported missing from their homes are 15 years old and older. Parents should most likely continue to monitor their children’s online activity beyond age 14 as predators do not stop pursuing their prey because of a child’s age.

Parents would be well advised to continue to provide at least minimal monitoring of their children’s online behavior until the child is a young adult. Responsible children will be less likely to be influenced by untoward Internet content or unsavory characters. However, better safe than sorry. You can never be too careful when it comes to the safety of children.

• Free Trial
• Cost: $97 for Basic License
• Records All Computer Activity
• Access Software Over Any Internet Connection
• Easy to Configure and Use
• Records All Keystrokes, Even Passwords and Searches
• Provides Screenshots

What Separates WebWatcher?

This parental control application provides the most comprehensive content monitoring solution of all the parental control applications we researched. It not only performs all of the functions that other parental control tools perform, WebWatcher records all computer activity on the monitored computer, which can then be accessed remotely. In addition to web content blocking and monitoring, it snaps screenshots of programs that are running on the monitored computer. It also includes a Keystroke Logger that keeps track of every single click of a key or mouse. It even records passwords used on the monitored computer.

Keeping Your Family Safe

Parents are able to access their child’s computer activity records over the Internet through an easy to use interface. The interface makes monitoring more than one user or computer a snap. Each session is recorded by date and time, as well as with the user name of the child. The interface provides the ability to quickly search through recorded data on dates and keywords so parents are able to quickly identify and thwart any online threat. WebWatcher also keeps track of the searches performed on the monitored computer.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

A great feature of this software is its ability to store all recorded monitoring data in an online account. To monitor a child’s activity, the parent simply logs onto the online account and opens the monitoring interface. Because it records monitoring data in real time, the parent is able to monitor the child’s activity as soon as the child performs an action on the computer. WebWatcher goes way beyond monitoring only online activity and blocking questionable websites. It records everything that is typed or accessed on the computer, online or offline. In addition, monitors email that is sent and received on the computer.

Search Functions and Filters

Not only does it record all activity on the monitored computer, but it also includes content filtering functionality. Just like other leading parental control monitoring applications, it provides the parent with the ability to filter all web content, including multimedia that the child may access. It also supports Keyword Alerts. When it encounters the specified keyword during a session, you will receive an email that the keyword has been used. Keyword Alerts function whether the user of the monitored computer utilizes the keyword in an email, an Internet search or the keyword is included in web content.

Final Thoughts

WebWatcher is a one of a kind computer monitoring software. With the fact that is has just about every feature imaginable, it all being accessible remotely from any computer with an internet connection at no monthly/yearly cost is simply unbeatable. WebWatcher is hands down the best monitoring software we had the privilege to review. With the free trial, there’s really no reason not to give it a shot when in the market for a top-notch computer monitoring software.

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