Corporate asset protection of email overlooked. (Internet Focus).

KVS Plc, say that corporate asset protection of email is largely overlooked by most organisations. Corporate-wide email systems contain not only critical and confidential business information, but also intellectual property, audit information and regulatory-compliance documentation, yet the vast majority remains unprotected.

The findings follow a recent KVS-commissioned report into the management, storage, retrieval and archiving of corporate-wide email systems by US market research company, CNI. The report revealed that while most companies have backup procedures or data, and some may have policies that extend to email, the majority are not able to implement satisfactory solutions because of inconsistent enforcement and the lack of enterprise-wide tools for adequate email storage and retention.

Email is more than just an information source today, it is a corporate asset, and corporate asset protection should extend to email because it is one of the most vulnerable areas of corporate data. Some clients now consider their email management systems as a defensive business tool. Knowledge is power in the information age, and if an employee or group of employees resign and walk oft' with laptops, this can have a devastating effect on an organisation, particularly in the SME sector where IT infrastructures tend to be less sophisticated."

Furthermore, corporate knowledge, in the form of email and other unstructured information, is continually leaking out of organisations, not least when employees leave. With some organisations facing a twenty per cent annual staff turnaround, this is becoming an increasingly widespread problem.

Email also forms the backbone of many regulatory or legal-compliance requirements. The implications of unprotected email storage and management are far reaching and not only affect individual and corporate productivity, but can also result in business penalties and repercussions for failure to comply with regulatory bodies, such as the SEC, or other regulators. Likewise, it is also the managed deletion of information hat has exceeded its retention period that can be just as important as keeping it, as this also helps companies avoid unnecessary due diligence costs. If companies cannot demonstrate that they have a policy for deletion, then under due diligence, they may be obliged to search.

One respondent surveyed, commented, "For a legal case were involved in, we had to produce all the emails pertaining to the matter over the last ten years. This was a tremendous expense. Some of the information was on tape backup, but was very difficult and time consulting to select, filter and reproduce. We also had to go to every user to get local email stores - laptops, desktops and even some employee's homes. It was a nightmare and cost the company millions.

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