Forwarded From: phreakmoi <hackerelite@deathsdoor.com>
From: http://www.currents.net/newstoday/98/11/03/news5.html
By Sylvia Dennis, Newsbytes
According to research just out from The Research Group, the use of
Internet e-mail in over 60 percent of UK corporations is so bad that it
leaves them vulnerable to prosecution.
The research found that more than 80 percent of companies cannot prevent
employees from sending confidential information to unauthorized parties
(including competitors) via Internet e-mail -- a fast growing problem.
To help organizations deal with this problem, network management and
security specialist Peapod Group says it has launched the UK's first
Internet e-mail monitoring service called ESP (E-mail Surveillance
Program).
According to Peapod, the survey of e-mail managers from 50 major UK
corporations by The Research Group, showed that only 38 percent can
monitor the content of Internet e-mail and only 18 percent are able to
track their destination.
According to the report, this leaves them vulnerable to the legal
consequences of potentially offensive or libellous e-mail sent over the
Internet by employees, such as prejudiced jokes, pornographic material and
ill-considered comments about individuals or organizations.
Peapod says that the launch of its ESP service has been welcomed by Dr.
Simon Moores, chairman of The Research Group and The Microsoft Exchange
Forum, and Robert Bond from the UK's leading IT specialist law firm,
Hosbon Audley Hopkins & Wood.
According to Peapod, using the latest Internet security software (called
WorldSecure Server) Peapod's ESP service will monitor all corporate
Internet e-mail traffic and help companies pinpoint violations of
corporate e-mail use. Peapod will then analyse the accumulated data and
produce a management report with security recommendations within seven
days.
Peapod says that its ESP service will protect customer organizations from
issues such as libellous Internet e-mail content. The firm says that
organizations are increasingly concerned about the legal consequences of
their employees sending offensive or libellous e-mail via the Internet to
third parties.
The ESP service, it says, can identify potentially libellous messages by
scanning e-mails for key words and recommend appropriate action.
In addition to this, Peapod says that its ESP service also protects
against the "leaking" of confidential information, a fast-growing yet
little discussed problem. Peapod says that its software can identify and
"quarantine" such e-mail and recommend approaches to blocking certain
information from leaving the organization via e-mail.
According to Peapod, many companies have now blocked employee access to
non-business related Internet Web sites (e.g. pornographic sites) but are
unable to control the flow of inappropriate material into the organization
via Internet e-mail.
These e-mails, the firm says, can contain huge files which waste expensive
corporate computing and network resources. Peapod says it can quantify the
extent of this problem and suggest flexible methods of reducing the
problem.
Pricing on the ESP service starts at 3,000 pounds ($5,100). Peapod's Web
site is http://www.peapod.co.uk .
Article posted on 11/03/98
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Received on Wed Nov 4 14:08:06 1998