Tag Archive for: Employee

Is your employer watching you? Demand for employee surveillance software skyrockets

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Déjà Leonard is a copywriter and freelance journalist based in Calgary.

You log in to your work computer, coffee in hand, sweatpants on, ready to work. It’s just you, your tasks for the day and anyone else you might share a living space with – or is it?

According to a recent report from top10vpn.com, an internet security firm that reviews VPN services, the demand for employee surveillance software is up 59 per cent since the pandemic started.

While this may seem sinister to some, and unsurprising to others, the uptick in interest isn’t completely unwarranted. One study reveals that eight in 10 remote workers in the U.S. admit to slacking off during work hours, and more than 43 per cent admitted to visiting pornographic websites on their laptops.

The problem with surveillance software

“The rapid rise of such invasive software risks setting new standards of workplace surveillance and dramatically undermining employees’ right to privacy,” the top10vpn report states.

While privacy is a concern, when you dig deeper, the more prominent issue for both employers and employees may be withdrawal.

Research from behavioural Scientist suggests that when people know they are being monitored, the breakdown in trust can lead to disengagement, which ultimately, and somewhat ironically, leads to even less productivity.

The report shows two of the most popular software for monitoring employees included Hubstaff and FlexiSPY. Here’s a quick look at some of the features of these software.

Hubstaff
  • Screen monitoring
  • Keystroke logging (recording the keys struck on a keyboard)
  • Location tracking
  • Time tracking
FlexiSPY

Everything Hubstaff can do, plus:

  • Remote-control take over
  • Call tapping
  • Webcam surveillance
  • Instant messaging (IM) monitoring

How governments and people are taking action

In Canada, governments are starting to look at the issue. Recently, Ontario became the first province to require companies with more than 25 employees to disclose if and how they are being monitored electronically including through…

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T-Mobile Employee Scuffles With Armed Robber – NBC Los Angeles

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An determined employee at a T-Mobile store in Orange County tried to stop an armed robbery caught on security camera video by tackling one of the thieves.

The video shows a man attempted to distract the employee Tuesday afternoon as another man walked into the Seal Beach store and clipped the security cable on a cellphone, police said. The employee saw what was happening and confronted the man in a corner of the store.

The two struggled inside the store for a few seconds, during which the robber almost lost his pants, before the scuffle spilled outside onto the sidewalk. Eventually, both men got away.

“After fighting for a several seconds, the suspect was able to get away from the employee and ran through the parking lot,” Seal Beach Police said in a statement. “Both suspects fled the scene in a gold-colored Lexus sedan prior to police arrival.”

A witness told police at least one of the men had a firearm. The weapon was not discharged and no injuries were reported.

Two women were inside the store at the time.

Police released the security camera video in an effort to identify the robbers. Anyone with information is asked to contact detective Ryan Bedard at 562-799-4100 ext. 1113 or [email protected].

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Smashing Security podcast #267: Virtual kidnapping, two helipads, and a naughty Apple employee – Graham Cluley

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Smashing Security podcast #267: Virtual kidnapping, two helipads, and a naughty Apple employee  Graham Cluley

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Ubisoft changes employee passwords after “cyber security incident” • Graham Cluley

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Ubisoft changes staff passwords after

Video game company Ubisoft, maker of hit titles like Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance, says that it has “experienced a cyber security incident.”

In a brief statement published on its website, Ubisoft said that out of caution it had “initiated a company-wide password reset” but that games and services were acting normally and there was “no evidence” any players’ personal information had been exposed.

Last week, Ubisoft experienced a cyber security incident that caused temporary disruption to some of our games, systems, and services. Our IT teams are working with leading external experts to investigate the issue. As a precautionary measure we initiated a company-wide password reset. Also, we can confirm that all our games and services are functioning normally and that at this time there is no evidence any player personal information was accessed or exposed as a by-product of this incident.

If the claim that no players’ data was breached as a result of the “security incident” then I guess that’s some relief, at least.

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As The Verge reports, the LAPSUS$ hacking group – which has recently claimed responsibility for attacks that stole internal data from NVIDIA and Samsung – implied on a Telegram group that it might be taking credit for the Ubisoft incident as well.

And by the way, who on earth says “experienced a cyber security incident”?

Come on Ubisoft, tell us what happened! Did someone manage to log into your network using stolen staff passwords? Did someone leave a sensitive database lying around exposed on the public internet? Did a member of staff get duped into running malware on their computer?

Some details would be nice…

And maybe sharing some more information of what you’re doing to strengthen security would be helpful too.

For instance, changing passwords is all very good (and let’s hope you’re advising members of staff to not use easy-to-crack passwords, or passwords that they have previously used elsewhere on the internet), but wouldn’t it be great to hear that you’re ensuring all workers are hardening their staff accounts with…

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