Email and Content Security Survey

35% of large European businesses employ staff to read employee emails, with more than a fifth (22%) terminating employees for email policy violations in the past year

In its fifth-annual study of outbound email and content security issues, Proofpoint, Inc. found that large businesses continue to incur risk from-and take action against-information leaks over outbound email, as well as blogs, message boards, media sharing sites and mobile devices.

Outbound email remains the greatest source of risk for European companies with a record 30% of those surveyed reporting that they investigated an email leak of confidential information in the past 12 months. 35% of largest companies surveyed (with 20,000 or more employees) reported that they employ staff to read or otherwise analyse the contents of outbound email. 11% of these companies said they employ staff primarily or exclusively for this purpose. Other key findings in the survey include:

30% of companies surveyed investigated an email-based violation of privacy or data protection regulations in the past 12 months.

22% of companies surveyed terminated an employee for violating email policies in the last 12 months.

30% of companies surveyed said their business was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information 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:

18% of companies surveyed had investigated the exposure of confidential, sensitive or private information from lost or stolen mobile devices in the past 12 months.

12% of surveyed companies disciplined employees for improper use of blogs/message boards in the past 12 months.

5% of surveyed companies disciplined employees for social network violations and 8% for improper use of media sharing sites in the past 12 months.

11% 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.

To download a free copy of Proofpoint's complete report, Outbound Email and Content Security in Today's Enterprise, 2008, visit: