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INDUSTRY NEWS


23 May 2008

Enterprises 'monitoring employee email'


A growing number of organisations are employing staff to read and analyse the contents of outbound email, a new survey from email security vendor Proofpoint has revealed.

According to the research, 35 per cent of companies with over 20,000 employees employ staff to analyse outbound emails, 11 per cent admitting that they employ people primarily or exclusively for this purpose.

The survey of companies across Europe, the Middle East and Africa also revealed that 30 per cent of organisations have investigated an email leak of confidential information in the last 12 months, 22 per cent reporting they have terminated an employ for violation of email policies in that period.

Website IT Pro reports that David Stanley, EMEA managing director of Proofpoint, said: "The amount of staff that are reading outbound emails stands at 38 per cent in the UK, that's one in four companies."

In comparison, he estimated that only 16 per cent of UK businesses implement technology to monitor outbound emails, despite the fact that outbound email remains the greatest source of risk for companies in Europe.

A survey conducted by security certifications firm ISC2 in April 2008 revealed that information security is rising up the corporate agenda, as the risk of damage to corporate reputation comes to be fully appreciated by business executives.

© 2006 Adfero Ltd.

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