SpectorSoft
Protecting Students and Schools from the Dangers of the Internet

The internet has become an indispensable part of the communications fabric in most schools. It enhances the curriculum by establishing a new level of connection between the teacher, the student and the educational content. However, while the internet opens up the world of information, it can also be a threat to productive learning. “School technologists continue to deal with new challenges every day. Students waste valuable school-time on unproductive computer activities, hack into PCs and networks, or deploy proxy servers to bypass school web filters and more,” says Jason Judge, CEO, SpectorSoft.

SpectorSoft, a Vero Beach, FL-based company helps educational institutions reduce bandwidth abuse, curb inappropriate internet usage or communications, and protect confidential student information. “Most often, it comes down to greater productivity and better data security,” says Judge. The company offers an application called Spector 360 that monitors and records student activities on school PCs and the internet. It alerts the institution of internet abuse and allows review of web activity to increase student time on tasks, protect them and the network from the dangers of the internet, and save money on unnecessary software licensing. “Using high-level views of activity, you can quickly analyze trends and patterns, as well as drill down into specific activity to investigate any suspicious behavior,” adds Judge.

Our solutions provide a valuable way to deter, detect and detail non-compliant activity in organizations to deliver better security and greater productivity

As students often believe that rules were made to be broken, “notifying users that a monitoring solution is in place provides a natural deterrent effect that eliminates some situations even before they happen,” says Judge. “Spector 360 lessens students trying to circumvent the firewall and filters, reduce malicious or mischievous activities, or discover instances of cyberbullying,” adds Judge. The software provides internet usage details through DVR-style playback of screenshots, “giving complete context to know what happened, the extent, those involved, and possibly even why,” remarks Judge. Its global keyword search allows organizations to find specific keyword information on-demand, regardless of preconfigured alerts. It also helps institutions to meet or exceed Federal compliance requirements, such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and Family Educational Rights, and Privacy Act (FERPA) by seamlessly maintaining records of internet use, communications, and transactions.

More than 36,000 companies, schools, and government entities worldwide use SpectorSoft solutions to gain insight into the user activity on their network, and enjoy the security and productivity that comes with it. One of the company’s clients, Bexhill College, was concerned about IM, web mail, and general internet misuse. Students were visiting websites that didn’t adhere to the school’s acceptable user policy. The administrators used Spector 360 to provide proof as to the activity and then institute the proper precautions to prevent further occurrences. “With Spector 360, I don’t need to stop what I’m doing all the time just to fight human nature,” said Bob Bailey, Bexhill College Network Administrator. “With Spector 360, I can work invisibly behind them and close the loopholes so it doesn’t go global. Content filtering alone wasn’t letting me do that,” he adds.

SpectorSoft continues to grow rapidly as companies and education systems focus more on trying to secure their data from insider threats. “We continue to enhance our detection methods and data analytics to expose areas that may need prioritized attention; and also ease the process of implementing and applying a user activity monitoring program,” Judge concludes.