The myths of e-mail governance

Communications News,  Jan, 2008  

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The "Top Seven Myths for Enterprise E-mail Governance," according to MessageGate, which provides e-mail governance service:

1. My company does not have a data leakage problem. In reality, all companies experience some form of data leakage. (Research indicates that 80 percent of all data leaks are unintentional.) Web-based e-mail is the biggest culprit, offering remote access outside of the corporate network.

2. IT "owns" e-mail and is ultimately responsible for its destiny. On one hand, employees claim ownership of e-mail as creator of the message. IT departments, however, see it as their asset to manage because it resides on the corporate network. Neither is an absolute truth. E-mail has become a legal business record. As a result, the corporation, as a whole, is ultimately responsible for every e-mail traveling across its network.

3. IT must read every incoming and outgoing message for e-mail controls to be effective. Most IT departments lack the budget and manpower to police each and every message. A more appealing option is to automate the process through e-mail governance software using both lexicon and contextual controls. These applications prevent unintentional data leaks while also educating employees on acceptable e-mail use.

4. E-mail controls hamper employee productivity. E-mail controls software increases security, while also ensuring that all employees follow uniform archiving and other governance policies.

5. Securing the corporate network ensures e-mail confidentiality. Employees often believe that e-mails are only accessible to their intended recipients. IT departments add to the misperception by assuming corporate network security efforts are enough. Employees, however, create local copies of their Outlook PST file to their local machine to bypass burdensome security procedures. As a result, there is little protecting the files if the computer is lost, stolen or simply left unattended.

6. Instant messaging is a bigger threat than e-mail. E-mail is still the largest communication channel used within corporate environments, representing the biggest data leakage threat.

7. Spam, e-mail viruses and other incoming threats have diminished. Incoming e-mail threats have not diminished. In fact, analysts predict spare to grow to as much as 80 percent of all e-mail traffic by 2011.

COPYRIGHT 2008 Nelson Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning