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Watch What You're Doing: Surveillance and Monitoring Policy Survey

The "CSO Surveillance and Monitoring Survey" finds a good many video surveillance practitioners stuck with outmoded practices

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By Derek Slater

Page 2

Improved employee productivity 6%

Improved workflow/supply chain 7%

Increased safety for employees/consumers 45%

Prevention of theft of physical property or data 46%

Prevention of crime/vandalism 43%

Do not measure ROI 49%

Where is your surveillance monitored?

Centralized/located in a corporate office not at your location 5%

Monitored on-site 50%

Combination of central and local monitoring 45%

How long do you store surveillance footage?

Less than 1 month 33%

16 months 50%

7 months to 1 year 7%

More than 1 year 10%

How often is your surveillance footage reviewed by a person?

Footage constantly monitored 25%

At least once a day 10%

At least once a week 3%

At least once a month 5%

Stored only, viewed on an as-needed basis 48%

Viewed only when electronic alarms go off 9%

Employees' use of the Web is widely tracked; other data-monitoring practices are significantly less common.

Which of the following types of employee data-monitoring does your company allow?

Real-time e-mail content monitoring (such as scanning for keywords) 61%

Real-time content monitoring of instant messaging (for example, scanning for keywords) 36%

Examination of archived e-mail/IM only 46%

Real-time Web usage tracking (such as for pornography or sports sites) 78%

Real-time packet monitoring (for file types such as MP3) 45%

Keystroke logging 11%

Hard-disk forensics 40%

How long do you retain central archives of e-mail messages?

Less than 6 months 29%

6 months to 1 year 24%

13 years 15%

47 years 13%

More than 7 years 9%

Do not retain messages centrally 9%

34% ...use video surveillance for purposes other than security

45%...have been trained in the legalities of video surveillance

24% ...capture and archive instant messaging conversations

Methodology:

The "CSO Surveillance and Monitoring Survey," conducted by CSO, was administered online during May and June 2005. CSO subscribers were invited by e-mail to take the survey. Results shown here are based on the responses of 169 security professionals. (Not all respondents answered all questions.)

Survey respondents represent a range of industries, including finance (21%); health care (10%); state, local and federal government (11%); manufacturing (7%); and education (5%).

In terms of title, 38% of the respondents held senior-level security titles including CSO, CISO or vice president of security. Eighteen percent were CIOs or CTOs, 8% held other C-level titles including CEO, COO and CFO. And 12% were directors or managers of security.