BELLEVUE, Wash. -
1. My company does not have a data leakage problem. All companies experience some form of data leakage. Research indicates that 80% of all data leaks are unintentional, and web-based e-mail is the biggest culprit. These unintentional data leaks must be addressed.
2. IT “owns” e-mail and is ultimately responsible for its destiny. E-mail has become a legal business record. In fact, e-mail is now the most common form of electronic evidence requested during litigation discovery. As a result, the corporation as a whole is ultimately responsible for each and every e-mail traveling across its network.
3. IT must read every incoming and outgoing message for e-mail controls to be effective. The “big brother” concept does not resonate in most corporate settings. In addition, most IT departments lack the resources to police every message. An alternative is to use technology to automate the process.
4. E-mail controls only hamper employee productivity. Unfortunately, much of this false impression is earned from legacy solutions. Modern solutions can increase security, while also ensuring uniform archiving and other governance policies.
5. Securing the corporate network ensures e-mail confidentiality. Even when the network is secure, employees may create local copies to bypass burdensome security procedures. As a result, there is little protecting the files if the laptop is lost, stolen, or simply left unattended.
6. Instant messaging (IM) is a bigger threat than e-mail. E-mail is still the largest communication channel used within corporate environments, representing the biggest data leakage threat.
7. Spam, e-mail viruses, and other incoming threats have diminished. Analysts predict spam to grow to as much as 80% of all e-mail traffic by 2011–this problem isn’t going away.
