Industry View

Employee Monitoring Good for the Employee

'Big Brother' headlines or no - ArcSight CEO Tom Reilly argues that employee monitoring protects everyone from the negative impact of malicious insiders

By Tom Reilly, president and CEO, ArcSight

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Some people might see this as "Big Brother." Perhaps surprisingly, however, not only are organizations pushing for this type of monitoring, but so are many employees. In these hard times, an attack on a company could have a direct impact on employees; the company could even go out of business and employees could be out of a job. This is exactly what happened to Ellery Systems in Colorado when an employee gave intellectual property to a competitor. This case helped lead to the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, which makes the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime. Since the damage caused by an insider can be substantially higher than that caused by an outsider, prudence dictates that insider monitoring be put in place for everyoneâ¬"s protection. Much like a store owner keeps an eye on his inventory and registers, corporations are keeping an eye on their most important asset, information.

Monitoring for malicious insiders isn't "Big Brother." It's smart business, and it helps protect employers as well as their employees. ##

Tom Reilly has served as ArcSight Chief Executive Officer since September 2008 and as ArcSight President since August 2007. Mr. Reilly served as ArcSight Chief Operating Officer from November 2006 to September 2007. He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.