Survey: Outgoing Messaging Increasing Risk to Companies

June 5, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Thirty-eight percent of companies with 1,000 or more employees hire staff to read or analyze outbound e-mail while 44% of companies with more than 20,000 workers employ staff to scan these messages, according to a recent survey.

In its annual study of outbound e-mail and content security issues, messaging company Proofpoint, Inc. found that e-mail and other messaging is increasingly becoming a risk for companies.

The survey found that one-third of companies have investigated an e-mail leak of confidential or proprietary information and 36.4% investigated a violation of privacy or data protection regulation in the past year.

Additional key findings from the survey include:

  • Nearly one in three companies (31.6%) has terminated an employee for violating e-mail policies in the past 12 months.
  • More than half (52.4%) of companies have disciplined an employee for violating e-mail policies in the past year.
  • Companies estimate that one in five outgoing e-mails (22.8%) contains content that poses a legal, financial or regulatory risk.
  • More than a third (34.7%) of companies report their business was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information in the last year.
  • More than one in five (21.1%) were impacted by improper exposure or theft of customer information, while 15% were impacted by improper exposure or theft of intellectual property.
  • More than one in five companies (25.2%) were ordered by a court or regulatory body to produce employee e-mail in the last year.

The study also found that other communications channels, such as blogs and message boards, are emerging as sources of risk for companies:

  • More than half (55.4%) of companies are very concerned or concerned about Web-based email as a conduit for exposure of confidential or proprietary information. Respondents are also very concerned about FTP, IM, peer-to-peer networks and blogs.
  • Nearly one in five companies (17.3%) has disciplined an employee for violating blog or message board policies in the last year. 7.1% of companies fired an employee for such infractions.
  • 10% of public companies investigated the exposure of material financial information via a blog or message board posting in the past year.

To download a copy of the Proofpoint report go here . It requires registration.

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