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Viruses boost 'Big Brother' software
By Nick Easen for CNN
(CNN) -- It has never been easier for employers to monitor the e-mails and Internet activity of their staff. New anti-virus software easily enables companies to read e-mails, track Web surfing, and monitor content moving in and out of corporations. "Security software is a very competitive market and most vendors have now moved in to anti-spamming solutions and content filtering," Nancy Ho from security specialists Trend Micro told CNN. "And after the Blaster and SoBig worms we have received a lot of interest," adds Hong Kong-based Ho. Media attention, fear and uncertainty is fuelling sales of IT security products, as is the need for better corporate governance in the light of the Enron scandal and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the U.S. Government, finance and law -- areas with the greatest burden of legal liability -- are industries that tend to have the greatest interest in office IT security products. As the security industry grows so is the sophistication of the products on offer and the extent to which employees can be scrutinized in the work place. This is already fueling paranoia among UK businesses. In a recent survey of 18,000 adults who use email at work, Yahoo! Mail found that 61 percent think that the IT department reads their personal email in secret. Threat in the officeChief Information Officers (CIOs) and other IT executives are also increasingly focusing on the threat to office systems posed by staff. "Monitoring can only rise as management realize the danger of internal threats, such as employee misconduct," Uantchern Loh, of Ernst & Young Labs for Internet & Security, told CNN. "In the future it will definitely get smarter, with the development of cheaper artificial intelligent tools and more analyses on employees," adds Loh. So what are the barriers to the use of the software? According to Ernst and Young's global information security survey of 1,400 organizations in 66 countries, a high percentage cited insufficient funds as the number one obstacle. Although the security industry is growing, IT budgets and global economies are still in the doldrums and companies are still relatively unsure about what they are getting for their investment. "Management and directors these days generally accept the need for IT security. But what they are really asking now is -- what do I really get for this amount that I've spent?" says Loh.
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