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Email Security report 2008
24/04/08
Over half of
UK workers have sent emails to the wrong people according to a new
poll by Sendmail, a message-processing security company, with one in
five office workers sending up to three emails to the wrong people
everyday. Worryingly, the most common types of information sent out
of the company via email were internal company information, contract
information and personal details.
“We all know and expect the odd email to accidentally be sent to the
wrong person. But what is crucial to recognise today is the power
that is placed in employee’s hands when it comes to communications.
If confidential information is accidentally released and goes
astray, the consequences could be much further reaching,” said Ian
Emery, Vice President, Sales EMEA for Sendmail. “Email, IM and web
mail are tools we often use without thinking – they have
revolutionised the way we do business. However, it they aren’t
treated with care, they are just as capable of working against us as
for us.”
Other key findings show:
· Email education - Over a quarter of people don’t understand what
they can and can’t send out over company email
· Banking blooper - More than one in four people have sent bank
details over email
· Financial flounder - Almost a third (27.7%) of people have sent
their company’s financial details over email
· Email encryption – 74% of workers can’t encrypt their emails,
which would remove many business security concerns
· Email examination – Nearly half (43%) of people don’t know if
their outbound emails are scanned before leaving the building
· Eyes on email – Almost 60% of workers wouldn’t mind their emails
being monitored
· Email extracts
· Over 50 percent (54.2%) use email to conduct non-work related
business (e.g. Personal banking)
· Over three quarters (77%) of workers use company email to organise
their social life
· More than 70% of respondents use email for laughs, sending jokes
and funny emails to people they know
· Almost half (49.6%) have discussed internal company information
over email
· Over third of people (36.6%) use company emails to discuss their
love life or other personal issues
Emery continued, “Familiarity has bred complacency. The next step is
about education, while people understand how to send email, the ease
of this has encouraged more to be sent, which in itself has helped
create a more dangerous email environment. As the email environment
becomes more developed so do the risks. To minimise these risks,
companies need to provide employees with the knowledge on how to use
their email to protect themselves and confidential company
information. No one wants a HM Revenue & Customs style data breach
via email!”
Sendmail’s top 5 tips for email best practice are:
1. Read the email before you send it
2. Beware sensitive data – do you know how sensitive data is meant
to leave the company? Does your e-mail system encrypt it?
3. Understand what you are allowed to use your work email for
4. Make sure you don’t click ‘Reply All’ rather than ‘Reply’
5. Check who is in the ‘To’ box
Nick Gibson, editor
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