DEALING WITH E-MAIL
by David Brake
E-mail Policy

 

Keeping Track of Your e-mail Recipients pp. 56-57

In the book I point out that most damaging or embarrassing episodes involving e-mail come not through deliberate sabotage or espionage but through simple human error. The BBC has assembled an entertaining and cautionary roundup of e-mail-related blunders and Silicon.com also shares some valuable lessons based on the testimony of over 2,000 embarrassed businesspeople from across Europe. As I noted, even e-mail that has been deleted can come back to haunt the un-wary as Bill Gates, Kenneth Lay and many others have found.

Securing E-mail, Avoiding Legal Pitfalls and Communicating E-mail Policies pp. 58-65

The legal ramifications of e-mail can differ widely from country to country and even from industry to industry - "Dealing with E-mail" suggests some common potential problems and simple ways to minimise any risks.

Clearswift, a company selling a variety of e-mail monitoring and security products, has commissioned several white papers which outline legal and security issues for organizations (registration is required to read them).

e-mail-policy.com is a very useful UK-based site that gives a good basic outline of the need for e-mail policies in your organization and supplements it with a list of useful management software and some books giving more detail.

Internet World produced an article (June 2003) that outlines many of the legal and security issues for UK organizations.

I contributed to a Best Practice Guide (£65) produced by the Work Foundation in the UK that surveyed 262 organizations across the UK and examines how they deal with security and disciplinary issues.