4 things that will get your computer monitored at work

IT departments have the ability to see everything that you do on company equipment.

With it costing IT departments’ time and effort - and breaching innocent employees’ privacy - snooping isn’t on their agenda.

However, New York Magazine Select/all interviewed system and network administrators to find out which behaviours on company devices have caused IT departments to investigate.

Lifehacker collated four tell-tale signs that may arouse suspicions about an employee’s activity, warranting further investigation.

1. Low productivity output – If an employee looks like they are busy, but aren’t outputting much work, IT could monitor their IM traffic, email traffic, and application activity.
2. Saving personal files to company devices – If system admin finds that folders and storage are being stored up too quickly, or is performing slower than usual, they may investigate what’s causing the hold up. Employees should keep personal videos and images on their own devices.
3. NSFW (not safe/suitable for work) files or web sites – This obviously breaches company policy, which could lead to an employee being reprimanded.
4. Non-technical related suspicious behaviour – If an employee is acting secretive, lazy or out of character, this may warrant the system admin to delve in to uncover why.

The administrators revealed that they have caught employees committing fraud, sending messages to co-workers venting about their boss/other employees via the company chat application, and visiting pornographic sites.

“Anything done on company equipment can be seen,” says Paul, a Systems Administrator who works in Minnesota, USA. “There is effectively no exception to this. Things that are encrypted can be decrypted and/or intercepted in transit, and there are also keyloggers and screen-capture software.”