Proofpoint, based in Cupertino, California, suggests that
companies have good reason to worry: more than half investigated an
email leak of confidential or proprietary information and almost
40% investigated a violation of privacy or data protection
regulations in the past year.
Additional key findings from the survey, which was fielded by
Forrester Consulting, include:
- Over 81% of UK companies have a written acceptable use policy
for email.
- Almost 34% of companies have terminated an employee for
violating email policies in the past 12 months.
- More than 70% of companies have disciplined an employee for
violating email policies in the past year.
- Companies estimate that nearly 1 in 5 outgoing emails (18.1%)
contains content that poses a legal, financial or regulatory
risk.
- More than a third (33.9%) of companies report their business
was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing
information in the last year. 14.3% were impacted by improper
exposure or theft of customer information, while 15.2% were
impacted by improper exposure or theft of intellectual
property.
Louise Townsend, a data protection specialist with Pinsent
Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, said employers must ensure
that their monitoring activities are legal.
"The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, the Lawful Business
Practice Regulations, the Data Protection Act and the Human Rights
Act all impact in this area depending on the nature of the
activities being undertaken," she said. "While it is
encouraging that so many companies have policies in place, what is
more important is that these policies comply with the law, are put
into practice consistently and are enforced."
Townsend warned that "reading the personal emails of staff
without lawful justification could land employers in trouble."
The study also found that other communications channels, such as
blogs and message boards, are emerging as sources of risk for
companies:
Nearly half 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, instant messaging, peer-to-peer networks, blogs and message
boards.
More than one in five companies (20.5%) has disciplined an
employee for violating blog or message board policies in the last
year. Almost four percent of companies fired an employee for such
infractions. Thirteen percent of public companies investigated the
exposure of material financial information via a blog or message
board posting in the past year.
