The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which takes effect next summer, will mean some companies will have to track who sees sensitive documents.

That's just one more thing to keep track of for companies that are already recording employees' phone calls and e-mail, videotaping their movements and keeping an especially sharp eye on disgruntled staff, aware of the damage they can do to computer systems. All that tracking isn't easy, and those with pared-down workforces are running out of people to do it. Enter new software. A Boston startup called Verdasys is beta testing some that tracks who looks at a file and whether they print out the information or burn it onto a CD. eSecurity sells software that makes sure all computers have a password-protected screensaver enabled to protect the system from unauthorized access during off hours. And Stone Analytics software detects unusual patterns in e-mail systems. It will raise a red flag if, say, an employee were to blast 10,000 e-mail messages from a company account, or try to log into the system with the wrong password 100 times in a day. Says one consultant, "The next generation of monitoring has arrived."

# 18022 BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE, 7-23-03

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