The jiggle is up: Bosses bust workers who fake computer activity

The rise of remote work and, in turn, employee-monitoring software sparked a boom in mouse and keyboard jigglers and other hacks to help staffers fake computer activity—often so they can step away to do laundry or a school pickup. More of these software systems, such as Teramind and Hubstaff, now also use machine-learning tools that can identify repetitive cursor movements or irregular patterns in someone’s computer activity. On Tech8 USA’s site, it claims to be undetectable since it doesn’t require installing software on a work computer and shifts the mouse around at seemingly random intervals and speeds. “It won’t look like normal human mouse cursor activity that regularly clicks, drags, etc.," he says. He recalls one instance flagged by Hubstaff’s software: An employee had set up a mouse jiggler to run for four to six hours a day on a work computer.