Veriato

Veriato, Inc.

Type	Private Company[1]
Industry	Software
Founded	1998
Headquarters	Palm Beach Gardens, FL, USA
Key people	Jason Judge (CEO)
Products	User Behavior and Employee Monitoring Software
Website	http://www.veriato.com

Veriato, formerly known as SpectorSoft,^[2] is a software manufacturer that develops and sells User Behavior and Employee Monitoring Software.

History

The company was founded in 1998, and was an early entrant in the internet monitoring market. In 2008, Private Equity firms Harbourvest Partners and WestView Capital Partners invested in the company, taking a majority ownership position.^[3] SpectorSoft originally serviced both consumer and business customers, but no longer sells software for consumer or home use.^[4] Today, the company is a provider of employee monitoring, user behavior analytics, and log management solutions to enterprise, mid-market, and small business. In 2012 SpectorSoft acquired the assets of Corner Bowl Software.^[5]

Products

Veriato Recon^[6] - A user behavior analytics solution. The software detects and alerts on anomalies related to insider threat behaviors. Veriato Recon also enables best practices like the review of online activity of employees during the high risk exit period.

Veriato 360^[7] – A user activity monitoring solution enabling companies to retain, review, report and alert on employee activity. Used for monitoring higher risk employees, and for incident response, Veriato 360 provides exceptional visibility and contextual information.

Veriato Investigator^[8] – An employee investigation solution perfect for temporary, focused investigations. Veriato Investigator installs quickly, records detailed information on employee activity, and enables fast, accurate, and efficient exploration and playback of the recorded data.

Log Manager^[9] - Veriato Log Manager provides event and security log management. Centrally monitor Windows, Unix, Linux, switches, routers, hubs and more; consolidating all of your event and security logs in one place and offering powerful reporting options.

Server Manager^[10] - Veriato Server Manager adds application, resource, and disk monitoring to the event and log management features found in SpectorSoft Log Manager. No other single solution equals this comprehensive offering for your server monitoring needs.

Awards/Distinctions

Spector Pro was given the PC Magazine editors' choice award in a 2002 review of six computer activity monitoring tools.^[11] In 2004, version 5.0 of Spector Pro was again given the editors' choice award from a field of four programs.^[12] In 2008 Spector 360 SR3 won the PC Magazine editors' choice award.^[13] In 2004, SpectorSoft was listed for the first time as one of Inc. magazine's Top 500 fastest-growing private companies in America, at position 224.^[14] The company achieved a position on the list once again in 2005 at number 497.^[15] In 2009 SpectorSoft made the list of Inc. 5000 Companies at number 3340.^[16] In 2010 and 2011 SpectorSoft again made the Inc. Magazine 500/5000 list.

Spectorsoft products have been mentioned in many well known media outlets, including ZDNET, PC/Computing, Time, CNN, NBC Nightly News, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.^[17]

In 2014, Spectorsoft won the SC Magazine Europe Best Fraude Prevention Award^[18] and the Best of Interop 2014 - Security Award ^[19] for their Spector 360 Recon product

Users

The target audiences for SpectorSoft products are parents who want to monitor the activity of their children on the home PC and employers who want to record the activities of their employees on company-owned workstations.

Employers

Employers may choose to monitor their employees using SpectorSoft software. There are, however, still privacy concerns over things like personal email.^[20][21] SpectorSoft addresses privacy issues regularly, and has a paper authorized by a leading privacy attorney available on its website.^[22]

Educators

Educators, school administrators and school districts are required to protect students from online predators (CIPA & FERPA). Most schools use blocking and filtering solutions, which may block sites needed for research or not block new sites that have not yet been included in the filtering solution. Spector 360 works with filters to provide an additional layer of protection, and also helps keep students on-task by providing teachers and technology coordinators with reports and charts that show what web sites students visit and how long they spent on each. Keyword alerts let lab instructors or IT administrators see who may be violating a school's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).^[23]

Parents

Parents have used Spectorsoft's software to monitor their children's internet use.^[24]

Illegal uses

Some of Spectorsoft's tools, especially eBlaster, can be used for criminal activities, and there have been several convictions for such misuse. Spectorsoft software contains an EULA^[25] specifying that installation must only be on machines owned by the licensee and also indicating that SpectorSoft will only cooperate with law enforcement when compelled to do so.

Spouses

Spectorsoft has marketed its spy software to people wanting to catch their spouses cheating.^[26] However, in the face of criminal charges and negative publicity, Spectorsoft no longer markets its products to spouses.^[27] There is, however, nothing to stop a spouse from using the products illegally. For example, a man from Michigan who installed eBlaster on a partner's personal computer was charged with four felony counts, facing up to five years in prison and $19,000 in fines,^[28] and in 2013 a Texas woman filed a criminal complaint against her estranged husband for using eBlaster to spy on her Facebook and e-mail communications.^[29]

Thieves

Since SpectorSoft software is specifically designed to be difficult to detect and remove, the tools (especially eBlaster) can be used by thieves who wish to steal credit card information, banking information, and passwords. Installation of the software can occur without the user's knowledge or permission.^[30] Spectorsoft openly advertise that their tools will record all of a user's passwords.^[31] There have been recorded cases of this happening.^[32]

Legal

Patent Infringement Case Helios Software LLC et al. v. SpectorSoft Corporation has concluded. In September 2014, the Court granted summary judgment of non-infringement as to the ‘571 and ‘237 Patents (See opinion at wordpress.com)^[33] On June 19, 2015, after a five-day trial, a jury returned a verdict of no direct or indirect infringement by SpectorSoft of the ‘304 Patent, and also found several of the asserted claims of that patent invalid as both anticipated and rendered obvious by prior art (see Docket Entry No. 615 for Civ. No. 12-081-LPS).^[34]

See also

• Computer monitoring
• Employee monitoring software

References