A company’s most valuable assets are at risk daily and can be shared instantly with others by e-mail – with potential impacts in the millions resulting from loss of shareholder value, significant customer flight, reputation damage, litigation and others. E-mail leaks are one of the biggest and most costly problems facing business and organizations. This will continue given the increasing competitive landscape in business and time pressures placed on organizations. The problem is exacerbated by the growing use of mobile products, services and platforms.

Protecting corporate assets and intellectual property is a key to successful corporate loss prevention. It is estimated that between 60 to 70% of a corporations intellectual property circulates through the email messaging systems and there is no trace of who sent them, where they are, and who has a copy of them.

What Is The Data Loss Prevention Threat?

Every business is concerned about data loss prevention at some level. Typically the items at risk in an organization are highly confidential information (strategic plans, business plans, customer and employee identification records, credit card information, medical records, trade secrets and others) that could put it and/or its employees under its care at financial, reputation or physical jeopardy should that information be released externally, intentionally or by accident.

Any entity with sensitive information with numerous individuals having access should be concerned with security. They include:

• Financial institutions
• Insurance companies
• Government agencies
• Large and mid-sized corporations
• Universities and other educational institutions
• Trade associations, professional organizations and national non-profits
• Law firms

Proactively Manage Data Loss Prevention Issues

The number of business email users today is approximately 780 million worldwide (Ferris Research), with millions of e-mails and attachments sent daily. Mobile email usage is growing dramatically, with wireless email users expected to grow from 14 million in 2006 to 228 million in 2010 (The Radiacati Group, 2006).

American Management Association and ePolicy Institute studies found:

• Twenty-four percent of employers have had e-mail subpoenaed by  courts and regulators and another 15 percent have battled workplace lawsuits triggered by employee e-mail (2006);
• More than one-fourth of employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail (2007);
• The 28 percent of employers who have fired employees for e-mail misuse did so for:
• Violation of company policy (64 percent)
• Inappropriate or offensive language (62 percent)
• Excessive personal use (26 percent)
• Breach of confidentiality rules (22 percent)

Access and identity management is important, and was listed by half of the respondents to Deloitte’s 2007 Global Security Survey as their top priority. As access to critical information grows, so does risk. Ignoring the issue will only escalate the consequences.

“To help control the risk of litigation, security breaches and other electronic disasters, employers should take advantage of monitoring and blocking technology to battle people problems – including the accidental and intentional misuse of computer systems and other electronic resources.”

       – ePolicy Institute