File access monitoring software that shows who opened, moved, or copied every file.
eMonitor is file access monitoring software that watches local disks, network shares, and cloud drives from one file activity timeline. Metadata only, never document contents. Sub-second file audit alerts on bulk downloads, off-hours access, and copies to personal USB drives or cloud accounts.
Available on Professional and Enterprise plans · No credit card required
Six file activity monitoring signals, one attributed timeline.
Every event captured by our file access monitoring software carries a user, device, path hash, and sensitivity tag. No file contents are ever read.
File Open, Modify, and Delete Tracking
Every read, write, rename, copy, move, and delete on watched paths is logged with user, device, action type, timestamp, and file hash before and after, so a full file activity audit trail follows each document.
Cloud Drive Access Monitoring
Cloud file access monitoring for OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box through endpoint sync folders plus cloud audit APIs for browser-only access sessions.
Bulk File Download Detection
Rolling-window rule fires when a user reads or copies more than N files inside T seconds, tuned against each employee's 30-day baseline for a per-role bulk download alert.
Off-Hours File Access Alerts
Compares each event's timestamp against the employee's schedule, timezone, and country holiday calendar, then alerts on file access to sensitivity-tagged folders.
Forensic File Audit Timeline Export
Chain-of-custody CSV, JSON, or signed PDF export of the file access audit with hash-chain proof, ready for HR interviews, external counsel, or regulator handover.
Sensitive Folder Tagging
Tag any local, network share, or cloud folder as Public, Internal, Confidential, or Restricted. Sensitivity tags cascade into every file activity alert, report, and export.
File activity dashboard across every folder and every user.
KPIs, hourly file event volume, and top-accessed folders update as the endpoint agent reports in, so a full file server monitoring picture is always live.
File events by hour
Top folders accessed
How employee file monitoring goes from event to routed alert.
Lightweight agent, sensitivity-aware rules, structured routing. Three steps from a raw file event to an attributed, actionable alert.
Agent captures file events
The endpoint agent subscribes to OS file-system notifications on Windows, macOS, and Linux, plus cloud sync-folder hooks. Path is hashed on capture, and events are batched and encrypted before transit.
Tag against sensitivity
Each event is matched against the folder-sensitivity map, employee role, work schedule, and 30-day baseline. Tags for Public, Internal, Confidential, and Restricted flow through to reports and alerts.
Alert on rule
Rules fire on bulk downloads, external-drive copies, off-hours reads, mass deletes, and departing-employee sessions. Alerts route to IT, HR, and SIEM through email, Slack, webhook, or Sentinel connector.
One structured record per file event.
Path-hashed, hash-chained, and exportable. Metadata only.
Four jobs file activity monitoring does better than a cloud console.
IP protection and source code file tracking
- Watch source code, product docs, and roadmap folders across GitHub sync, OneDrive, and network shares
- Flag copies from Restricted folders to any removable drive or personal cloud domain
- Correlate file access with USB inserts to build a single exfiltration timeline
- Preserve evidence in append-only storage with signed hash chain
PHI and PII file access compliance
- Satisfy HIPAA §164.312(b) audit-control requirements at the endpoint
- Log every file event on GDPR personal-data folders under Article 5(1)(f)
- Answer data-subject access requests with attributed access history
- Export tamper-evident audit records for SOX and PCI-DSS auditors
Departing-employee file access investigations
- Elevate file monitoring the moment HR marks an employee as departing
- Every read, copy, rename, or delete in the final 30 days queues for same-day review
- Route alerts to IT security and the HR case owner in one message
- Package a signed forensic export before revoking access
Bulk file download containment
- Rate rule catches 25 files in 60 seconds, or any per-team baseline you configure
- Sub-second alert with source folder, destination path, and full file list
- Optional automatic USB or cloud-sync isolation on rule fire
- Review, dismiss, or escalate from the case view without leaving the console
Built for teams where a lost file is a headline.
Native cloud audit logs vs. eMonitor file access monitoring.
One user can move a file across three silos in ten seconds. Native logs stay siloed. eMonitor's file access monitoring merges them into one attributed timeline.
| Dimension | Native cloud audit logs | eMonitor file access |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | One product only (OneDrive, or Drive, or Dropbox) | Local disks, network shares, and every cloud drive in one timeline |
| User attribution | Per-product identity, hard to correlate | Single SSO identity across all events |
| Bulk-download detection | Manual query or third-party SIEM rule | Built-in rolling-window rule, sub-second alert |
| Sensitivity tagging | Product-specific labels, do not cross silos | Unified tag map across local, network, and cloud folders |
| Chain-of-custody export | Raw CSV, no hash chain | Signed export with per-event and per-log hash chain |
| Off-hours & role rules | Custom scripting | Included, tied to employee schedule and role |
How they fit together: keep the native cloud logs for provider-side receipts. Put eMonitor on top for a workforce-wide view that pairs cleanly with USB / DLP monitoring and activity logs.
File access auditing built for the compliance review that comes next.
A file audit that respects the people creating the files.
- Metadata only. The agent records file names, sizes, timestamps, users, devices, and hashes. It never opens files or reads their content.
- Path hashing. Full paths are hashed at capture time. Investigators can resolve a hash back to a path only with a signed review request, keeping day-to-day dashboards free of the raw filenames of personal documents.
- Sensitive folders are configurable. Admins choose which folders are watched. Personal or off-scope directories can be excluded from capture entirely, per team or per device.
- Employee self-access. Every employee sees their own file audit timeline through their personal dashboard, on by default, and cannot be disabled by managers. See our best-practices guide and country-by-country legal requirements.
File Access Monitoring FAQ
What is file access monitoring software and what does it record?
File access monitoring software records metadata about file events, not file content. Every open, modify, rename, copy, move, and delete is captured with a path hash, action type, timestamp, user, device, file size, and pre- and post-action file hashes. Document text, images, and message bodies are never read or stored.
Which storage locations can eMonitor's file activity monitoring cover?
Local disks, mapped network shares, SMB and NFS servers, and connected cloud drives including OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box. Sync-folder activity is captured at the endpoint, and cloud audit APIs are polled where available to cover browser-only access. Configure watched paths per team or per device.
How does bulk file download detection work?
A rate rule fires when a single user reads or copies more than a configured file count inside a rolling time window, for example 25 files in 60 seconds. The default rule is tuned per role using a rolling 30-day baseline. The alert includes the full file list, the source folder, and the destination path or device, delivered within one second of the threshold being crossed.
Can we tag folders by sensitivity inside file access monitoring?
Yes. Any folder, on a local disk, network share, or cloud drive, can be tagged Public, Internal, Confidential, or Restricted. Sensitivity tags flow into every downstream alert, report, and export, so a copy from a Restricted folder to a personal USB device fires louder than the same copy from a Public folder.
How does off-hours file access detection work?
eMonitor stores each employee's normal work schedule and compares every file event's timestamp against it. Access to a sensitivity-tagged folder outside the scheduled window triggers an off-hours alert with the user, device, folder, and file list. Weekend and holiday calendars are supported per country.
Can employees see their own file access audit log?
Yes. Every employee has a personal timeline showing file events attributed to them, on by default and not disableable by managers. Transparency is a core privacy commitment and reduces the friction of rolling employee file monitoring out across a workforce.
Is the file audit export forensically defensible?
Yes. Every event is written to append-only storage with a cryptographic hash chain. Exports include the event payload, the hash of the file before and after the action, the device fingerprint, and the chain-of-custody hash for the log itself, in CSV, JSON, or a signed PDF suitable for HR and legal proceedings.
How is file access monitoring different from a cloud drive's native audit log?
Native audit logs, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, are siloed per product. If an employee copies a file from a network share to a personal Dropbox account through the browser, no single native log tells the whole story. eMonitor's file access monitoring merges local, network share, and cloud events into one timeline attributed to one user, with one sensitivity tag and one alert engine on top.
Related features
DLP & USB Monitoring
Catch external-drive copies and block unauthorized removable media at the endpoint.
Learn more →Activity Logs
A single tamper-proof timeline of app, web, and file events for investigations and audits.
Learn more →Real-Time Alerts
Route file, USB, and policy alerts to email, Slack, webhook, or your SIEM within one second.
Learn more →Email Monitoring
Watch attachments leaving the org and correlate mail metadata with file audit events.
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