In recent years, eCommerce has become a major force in the business world, with e-retail sales surpassing 5.2 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide in 2021 alone. But along with this growth comes new challenges. As brands and customers move their interactions online, protecting customer data and ensuring regulatory compliance become difficult amidst a rise in fraud: In 2020, brand jacking and brand impersonation reachedan average of 27 million correspondences per month.25% of all branded emails are spoofed. These are troublesome figures, especially for eCommerce companies relying on digital interactions with their customers to stand out from the competition.
The good news is User activity monitoring (UAM) can help them by providing visibility into what users are doing on their system. By monitoring the activity of employees, partners, and customers, companies can detect security threats, troubleshoot performance issues, and track sensitive data to prevent it from reaching the wrong hands. UAM can also provide valuable insights into how users interact with your website and data, and it can aid in regulatory compliance such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). There are a number of different UAM solutions on the market. In this blog, we give you a round up of some of the best ones.
What does User Activity Monitoring (UAM) entail?
User Activity Monitoring, or UAM, is the process of monitoring user activity on a computer or network. This activity can include things like accessing files, sending emails, visiting websites, and more. The purpose of UAM is to help ensure that users are complying with company policies, to detect and prevent security threats, and to monitor the company’s network for suspicious activity.
UAM can be used to monitor both individual user activity and activity at the organizational level. To do this, organizations can track things like which users are accessing which files and when, as well as how much data they are transferring to and from the company’s systems. This information can be used to detect compliance issues, protect sensitive data from leaving the company’s perimeters, detecting security threats, and alerting security teams of suspicious activity before it’s too late.
Why is UAM important for eCommerce?
The value of UAM for eCommerce companies is that it can help improve security and prevent insider threats and outsider attackers from gaining access to corporate systems. For employees, UAM can help improve productivity by providing visibility into how they are accessing and using sensitive data. For customers, UAM can help improve the security of their personal information and transactions.
Organizations must be careful when collecting and storing user activity data, as this data can be sensitive. UAM data can reveal a user’s web browsing history, which can be used to infer their interests, habits, and more. As such, it is important that organizations have strong policies and procedures in place to protect this data and ensure that it is only used for legitimate purposes. Meanwhile, employees should be aware of the company’s approach to cybersecurity and consent to having their activities monitored while operating on the corporate network.
UAM challenges and how user activity monitoring software can solve them
UAM can be difficult to implement and manage because it requires the collection and analysis of large amounts of data. This can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Automation with specialized software can help to make UAM more efficient and effective.
Some of the key criteria eCommerce companies should keep in mind when selecting UAM solutions include:
- The ability to monitor activity on all devices, including computers, laptops, smartphones, and tablets, especially as working from home becomes more common and employees may use a range of devices to access corporate information remotely.
- The ability to monitor activity in all software applications, including web browsers, email clients, chat clients, and file-sharing applications.
- The ability to track user activity in real time.
- The ability to generate reports on user activity.
- The ability to alert administrators to suspicious activity.
Top 7 UAM tools for 2023
Here are the top 7 UAM tools for 2023 and how they can help your business thrive with a security-first approach.
1. Digital Guardian User Activity Monitoring
What is Digital Guardian User Activity?
How visible is your data? Digital Guardian provides visibility on who’s using what, when, and where–along with where your data is traveling to.
The aim of Digital Guardian is to provide visibility on hardware, software, data creation, and movement.
Who is Digital Guardian User Activity for?
- Companies and businesses that outsource security services and require:
- Employee monitoring
- Sensitive data audit trails
- Better file movement insights
Pros
- “Very secure app for data transmission. The policy customization is compatible.” – Ramesh K. Manager, IT
- Automatic data classifications and customizable policies with lightweight applications.
- Can be used to control your data and bring awareness to your organization
Cons
- Complicated dashboard
- Can conflict with other programs, causing slowness due to continuous monitoring
- Searching and navigating can be clunky
Where is it relevant
“We are a small organization in regards to headcount, but provide an important function so when we were able to get this as a managed service it worked out well as it is a way to augment our existing team. The DG agent is very powerful in the ways it can be used to control your data and it helps make you aware of your data as well. Our analyst does a nice job of finding things of interest so we are more aware of what data is going where and we can ensure it would be difficult to misuse. If you want this to go well it is really important to make sure you put the time and effort in during implementation to ensure you don’t run into issues.” – Verified User in Government Administration, Mid-Market (51-1000 employees)
2. Memcyco
What is Memcyco
Memcyco is an anti-imposter system that allows eCommerce and other industries to securely communicate with their customers, while giving customers a visual means to verify the authenticity of the digital asset being presented.
Who is Memcyco for?
Companies looking to reduce or prevent brand impersonation attacks such as phishing, spoofing, and fraud. Although not exclusively a UAM, Memcyco can be used on all points of communication between eCommerce brands and their customers (including websites, email, and SMS) to ensure the integrity and security of their digital experience. Through an innovative verification method called Proof of Source Authenticity (PoSA), Memcyco alerts both the brand’s security team and the end-user of suspicious activities such as fraud.
Pros
- increase customer and user trust in digital correspondences and enhance their browsing experience with visual authentication to prevent brandjacking
- provide an integrated approach to secure communications across channels such as website, SMS, and email, with a customizable watermark that adapts to brand specifications
- personalized authenticity verification for the end-user through a digital watermark that can’t be forged
- Detects unknown workstation and environment in real-time so security teams can stop brand identity theft attempts
Cons
- Not suitable for workforce UAM
Where is it relevant
Memcyco’s monitoring system detects and alerts companies in real-time of brand identity theft (such as website spoofing, cloning, and account take-overs) and phishing attempts to prevent them before they reach end-users. This can be beneficial for eCommerce sites and supply chain flows where unauthorized access or spoofing attacks can result in stolen data, financial losses, and reputational damage.
3. SEON
What is SEON?
Seon is a fraud detection platform that produces a risk score based on digital and social media lookup. In a nutshell, SEON is a digital background check on users and customers so that your business doesn’t become a victim to large-scale bot scams and attacks.
Who is SEON for?
- eCommerce-based businesses looking to screen customer activity and verify identity
- businesses that are involved in financial transactions online, and therefore must prevent fraud and financial crime
- businesses looking to automate digital profile checks for customer onboarding
Pros
- easy to set up and use, with an intuitive UI
- a flexible tool that allows you to create and modify different rules based on your needs
- AI and machine learning based, making it adaptable to fraud developments
Cons
- IP geolocation can be improved
- training is required to understand and implement all functionalities
- can be a complex system based on the number of options available
Where is it relevant
“A really complex system with so many different helpful features that makes the investigation side of our job so much more thorough. Being able to see so many different links between accounts and being able to search the system using lots of different features such as IP address etc and being able to block via email address etc is incredibly helpful and makes our job ten times easier.” – Sarah R. Fraud & Risk Executive
4. Teramind
What is Teramind?
Teramind is a user behavior tracking software that can be used to monitor employee activity, improve business processes, and implement security compliance by capturing, analyzing, and controlling user desktop activities.
Who is Teramind for?
- remote teams
- businesses with sensitive data that needs to be tracked and monitored for movement and consumption
- organizations looking to keep track of workforce activities for compliance and forensics
Pros
- ability to modify access levels of sensitive documents and data for employees and contractors
- can be used to monitor employee productivity for a remote workforce
- simple interface
- real-time dashboards
Cons
- No Linux support and buggy on Mac OS
- can conflict with anti-virus software
- can impair older programs’ ability to function
- remote PCs installation can be challenging
Where is it relevant
“Teramind makes it easy to track user activity in so many different ways. On top of the session recordings (which include audio), there are logs for emails, applications, printing, file access, and even keystrokes if you want to enable that feature. The dashboard is intuitive, so finding all the relevant data is not difficult. The support team at Teramind is probably the best of any I have come across in the IT industry. They are easy to contact, quick to reply, and highly knowledgeable.” – Verified User in Legal Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 employees)
5. Ekran System
What is Ekran System?
Ekran System is a monitoring system that prevents insider risk by increasing the visibility of employee activities.
Who is Ekran System for?
Ekran System is great for teams and organizations that need to manage identities, control access, monitor activity, and create notifications for suspicious behavior. It can also be used to collect data for retrospective investigations on incidents.
Pros
- seamless installation process and overall easy integration into existing systems
- ability to go back and revisit events in past sessions
- easy-to-use functionality that allows you to watch screens and manage remote projects
- collects data that supports internal behavioral risk analysis
Cons
- disk space for keeping record logs is required by the user
- clunky and dated interface
- cannot record browser tabs
Where is it relevant
“We have been using it for almost a year now. I really enjoy being able to see from a web browser to entire state of the system and recording without going onto the server itself. We have seen alerts come across and able to react quickly to verify what is going on. I especially enjoy the ability to keep everyone up to date on the agent without reboots or scheduling them. The quality of recordings is great and very detailed. Doing a search within the recordings helps to narrow down to what you are looking for.” – Wayne E. Network Administrator Manager
6. Reflectiz
What is Reflectiz?
Reflectiz specializes in monitoring third-party activities that are not visible to standard security controls and can lead to client-side attacks, supply chain risks, and vulnerabilities in your online software. It provides visibility over your client-side applications and third-parties through active monitoring of data flows. Any activities that are deemed malicious (such as the addition of scripts and tags without your knowledge) will be alerted to you.
Who is Reflectiz for?
eCommerce companies or any business that processes payments and relies on a secure supply chain. Reflectiz can help you figure out your website dependencies, understand third-party integration vulnerabilities, and identify where your sensitive data may be at risk.
Pros
- simple UI that makes it easy to understand the risks with a customizable alert system
- zero impact integration with remote execution
- instant notifications and behavior mapping for your third-parties and data flows
Cons
- Monitors network activities only and does not include access controls
Where is it relevant
“Reflectiz is helping us monitor where data on our sites is being sent in order to prevent sensitive data being transmitted to unauthorized third parties.” – Chris R, Application Security Engineer
7. Data Resolve
What is Data Resolve?
Data Resolve is a data leak prevention user activity monitoring platform. It specializes in protecting personally identifiable information by ensuring that you are fully aware of where that data is and if there are sprawls within your systems.
Who is Data Resolve for?
Data Resolve is an enterprise-grade monitoring that covers workstations, cloud apps such as Office 365 and emails, and hardware devices such as local printers. In short, Data Resolve is an end-to-end monitoring platform that ensures you have full visuals on your confidential data, where it is sitting, along with when and where it is moving.
Pros
- can help your organization understand where your sensitive data is residing
- Allows users to monitor fragments of data and track its movement across their networks
- Alerts users if external access is granted
- Can be used to lock down specific channels and restrict activities in the event of a compromise
Cons
- fixed dashboards with no customizable options
Where is it relevant
“Excellent product & excellent support as and when required. They organised multiple training session at multiple locations for knowledge transfer to ensure smooth support and proper in-house management by our IT team. We have suggested few additional features to incorporate in upcoming product releases.” – Group Head IT, transportation industry
Transacting online in full confidence
User activity monitoring may sound invasive at first, but when done correctly, it can protect both individual users and the business at large from data theft and data leaks, preventing malicious activities. By tracking and recording user activity, businesses can identify potential issues and take steps to mitigate them before they cause serious problems. Additionally, UAM can help businesses to understand how their users interact with their websites and online services, providing valuable insights that can be used to improve the user experience and even inform smarter marketing campaigns.
While there is a multitude of UAM tools available in addition to those listed here, they all share a common goal: to help businesses keep tabs on their employees, partners, and customers and ensure that they are all able to engage digitally in a safe and secure way. At Memcyco, we envision a world where businesses empower users to engage with their digital assets, transact, and communicate online in full confidence. Stay in touch to see how we’re bringing that vision that vision to life.
Eyal is head of demand generation at Memcyco
