When the FBI raided the home of a male TV news anchor for a Philadelphia-based station in early June, they seized his home computer. The raid came after a female co-anchor, who had previously been dismissed, charged that he had hacked into her private e-mails and distributed them to other media. While the study about these allegations is ongoing, the case brings to light many common concerns regarding e-mail today.

E-mail has become the preferred communication tool in business, providing not only a medium for short correspondence but additionally for sending documents, news (i.e., corporate earnings), invoices, receipts, and a host of other communiques.

Open Access to Intellectual Property?

But even as e-mail has become a mission-critical business communication tool, it has become a corporate threat, considering sensitive info can be leaked from a company much like the female co-anchor’s personal knowledge was allegedly distributed. According to a report from Enterprise Strategy Group, more than 75 percent of the average company’s intellectual property is restricted in e-mail messages and their corresponding

Some of the intellectual property, such as corporate financial reports, is intended to be in those e-mails. But other intellectual property, including complete e-mail threads, draft documents, and other private knowledge, is not meant to leave a company’s premises. E-mail experts recommend using layered technologies to help manage the risk. What one application or technology might not catch, another one could, they point out.

One way to protect that info is to restrict e-mail or prohibit attachments. But such restrictions plus limit a company’s productivity, according to e-mail experts.

Balancing defense and Productivity

A firm has to balance safety measure with productivity, says Mark Rotman, CEO of Toronto-based Messageware, Inc. Blocking too many types of documents or composition can keep a company from being able to leverage the Web to its fullest.

Rotman and other e-mail…

Original post by Mike

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