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CCH® HR MANAGEMENT - 6/11/08

More than one quarter of employers have discharged employees for email policy violations

Large employers continue to incur risk from—and take action against—information leaks over outbound email, as well as newer communications media such as blogs, message boards, media sharing sites and mobile devices, according to a survey of outbound email and data loss prevention issues by Proofpoint, a provider of email security and data loss prevention solutions.

Outbound email remains a key source of risk for U.S. enterprises, with a record 44 percent of surveyed companies reporting that they investigated an email leak of confidential information in the past 12 months. Forty-one percent of the largest companies surveyed (those with 20,000 or more employees) reported that they employ staff to read or otherwise analyze the contents of outbound email. Of the large employers, 22 percent said they employ staff primarily or exclusively for this purpose. Other key findings among the companies surveyed include:

• 40 percent of companies investigated an email-based violation of privacy or data protection regulations in the past 12 months.
• 26 percent of companies terminated an employee for violating email policies in the last 12 months.
• 23 percent of U.S. companies surveyed said their business was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information in the last 12 months.
• Four percent of the largest companies (20,000 employees or more) reported that employee email was subpoenaed in the last 12 months.

Email is not the only source of risk for information leakage, however. Respondents to the survey indicated significant risk resulting from employee use of blogs, message boards and media sharing sites (such as YouTube), as well as mobile devices. Some of the key findings include:

• 27 percent of companies had investigated the exposure of confidential, sensitive or private information from lost or stolen mobile devices in the past 12 months.
• 11 percent of companies had disciplined employees for improper use of blogs/message boards in the past 12 months.
• 13 percent of companies disciplined employees for social network violations and 14 percent for improper use of media sharing sites in the past 12 months.
• l14 percent of publicly traded companies surveyed had investigated the exposure of material financial information (such as unannounced financial results) on blogs or message board postings in the last 12 months.

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