US Companies Will Monitor Employee Email
By IT-Observer Staff
Tuesday, 7 June 2005 17:45 EST



Growing concern over sensitive information leaving the enterprise through outbound email forces technology decision-makers at large and small US companies to employ people to monitor outbound email for legal and financial information.

A recent survey results, conducted by Proofpoint, indicate the rising prominence of outbound email as a source of risk for corporations. US companies are most concerned about ensuring that email isn’t used to leak company secrets and confidential information. The results also highlighted an increasingly concern about compliance with healthcare and financial regulations.

The survey found that more than 63% of US corporations with 1,000 or more employees either employ or plan to employ staff to read or otherwise analyze outbound email, 36% of US companies employ staff to monitor email today with another 26.5% saying they intend to employ such staff in the future. In the largest companies (those with more than 20,000 employees) this practice is even more common - 40% employ staff to monitor email today and an additional 32% plan to employ such staff in the future.

"The UK faces the same issues as the US. UK companies are just as likely to be losing valuable intellectual property via email, potentially running afoul of privacy and data protection regulations and opening themselves up to costly litigation due to ageist, racist or sexist email content. Fortunately, "big brother" tactics aren't required to keep outbound email under control. By putting the right technology, policies and processes in place companies can greatly reduce the financial, legal and regulatory risks related to outbound email without resorting to reading employee email, “said Gary Steele, CEO of Proofpoint Inc.