Managers are jeopardising the security of company information by sending and exchanging unsecured confidential information in email sent to shared Inboxes. According to a new survey by Mesmo, European consultants in email management and etiquette, this results in 82% of personal assistants (PA’s) reading confidential information in error

Although many executives manage their own email most hand over their inboxes to their PA when they are out of the office or in meetings. Managing Partner and founder of Mesmo, Monica Seeley explains that although these PA’s have been given permission to manage their bosses’ inbox – they are receiving confidential material as open documents rather than password protected attachments. Indeed only 15% of companies have a policy regarding confidentiality. “Too many companies think that putting a confidentiality notice at the foot of an email protects them – by the time most people see the notice it has already been read. Similarly, putting ‘confidential’ in the subject line will not keep the contents secure if the recipient has their reading preview pane open.”

There is also a problem with confidential information being downloaded onto memory sticks, or iPods – which are all too easily lost or copied.

Although the survey showed that the majority of companies have ‘Acceptable User’ (AU) Policies for the Internet; only a third provide proper email guidance. Even fewer keep them up to date or actively enforce them. Mesmo recommends that an email charter on confidentiality is not only agreed and communicated to all staff but that measures are taken to ensure that all staff comply with the charter.

Underlining the need for this approach, Mesmo’s, Monica Seeley said that a smaller piece of research she had just completed showed that over a quarter (28%) of the companies surveyed have had to defend themselves from litigation as a result of careless email. In the same sample, 29% of companies admit to having email policies of some sort but none of them had undertaken any national education or training of their workforce.

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