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One third of US companies employ email snoops

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Thu May 22 2008, 17:02

A SURVEY CARRIED OUT by security outfit Proofpoint has revealed that 32 per cent OF US companies employ people specifically to read employee e-mails.

Twenty-seven per cent of these companies have sacked an employee for abuse of email and 45 per cent have taken disciplinary measures against staff who broke company rules on email use.

The biggest problem, as far as the surveyed companies are concerned, is the leaking of industrial secrets and information. More than a quarter of surveyed companies report that their business was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information in the last year and over a third had investigated a suspected email leak of confidential or proprietary information.

Social notworking sites are also a major cause of concern with 14 per cent of companies disciplining employees for violating policies relating to the use of Facebook, et al. µ

L'Inq
Proofpoint

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Comments
Webmail to the Rescue

I rarely use my professional e-mail address for personal affairs. I expect my employer to peek into them, and rightly so, for it's their infrastructure.

Now, there are some companies out there, that block webmail sites, daamit! Fortunately, there are always ways to poke holes in road blocks such as these...

posted by : Augustine, 26 May 2008 Complain about this comment
32%, eh?

Somehow I doubt that they're counting small business. Either that or among the local Thai restaurant, paint supply store, and barber shop, there's one of them that hired an employee just to snoop on email. How inefficient!

posted by : perisoft, 22 May 2008 Complain about this comment
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