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63% Of Corporations Plan To Read Outbound Email
John writes "Aviran's place reports that a recent survey of 332 technology decision-makers at large U.S. companies reveals that more than 63% of corporations with 1,000 or more employees either employ or plan to hire workers to read outbound email, due to growing concern over sensitive information leaving the enterprise through email."
This isn't funny as it has resulted in more than one person being terminated because of what was called "inappropriate" material (meaning someone COULD have taken offense to it. Remember...Charlie is Watching!
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
My corp uses AIM for internal communications, and I am really disturbed by this. I'm amazed the local admins have allowed this to go on. Basically all our conversations are going through AOL's servers and the internet, in plain text. And there is ABSOLUTELY no reason for this, since we're all on the local LAN.
I'm planning on setting up a jabber server on the linux box there, but it may be a chore getting employees to switch from AIM to something like gaim or trillian (does trillian support jabber?)
Nope, you are getting it all wrong, imagine the following: "And by this, my dear shareholders, our development team will know that their email is read, thus, reducing the time they spend on writing non-work related emails to minimum... and..." :) Management 101 = "everything is magic"
Well, it seems to me, and I might be way off here, that thinking up an email by an employee is in fact his company's property and hence, they have all the rights to read it, and it doesn't breaks anyone's right to privacy.
Email is considered company property, but people have gotten a little miffed because work and home tend to mix some. (No worries. It's natural as long as you keep it under control and under wraps.)
The part that amazes me these days is that people bother to send personal email through their work address when perfectly good webmail clients exist (*cough*gmail*cough*). Yes, your employer can probably see that you're surfing Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo/Home *nix Server. However, your email is not likely to be captured by their system, and remains private.
So, why do people still use work for private mail?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Well, the gut reaction is to say this a bad and terrible thing (also a bit silly, as it seems to me that anyone with any technical know-how would just use internet-based mail to get sneaky anyhow), but really, if you're on their payroll, isn't it well within their right to make sure you're not doing damage to them?
At the very least, it seems like a good way for the companies to weed out the idiots who would be stupid enough to send questional material through their servers.
Yeah, it sucks to be being watched and not trusted like that, but this shouldn't outrage anyone. They'll probably reverse their policies when the costs of something like this start racking up with nothing to show for it.
As with most draconian Big Brother initiatives this one won't work. What's to stop employees from just logging into a private webmail account over HTTPS and sending information out that way? Unless employers block browser access, search people for USB keys, iPods, floppies etc there's a dozen ways information can be leaked out of a building.
One of these days I'm moving to Theory - everything works there
This is oh-so-wrong on too many levels! One (that's too many.)! There are so many ways for employees to betray a financial or corporate trust. Likewise, there are many ways for an employer to betray a trust. This would, in my opinion, be one of the most onerous with many potential avenues for backfiring.
Consider the disgruntled or dishonest employee. Think they're intent to betray a company is stopped by this policy? Not a chance! This kind of "policy" would only bolster a disgruntled employee's rationalization/justification, etc. to follow through with betrayal. They only need choose some mechanism other than e-mail and there are many.
Now, consider the neutral employee... a policy like this could create a tipping point and generate resentment enough to give cause to consider doing something subversive to a company. After all, the company, by fiat, is essentially assuming an employee is "up to something".
Finally, consider the loyal employee (how many of those will there be after widespread policies like these?)... A quick glance around and loyal employees may begin to wonder what end from loyalty....
No, this is just plain bad policy.
This is why employers ought to let a reasonable amount of personal email usuage. The time spent going outside to use a cell is going to be a lot longer that a quickie email. I can understand why employers wouldn't want employees messing around on company time, but everyone knows everyone does it from time to time. You can bet your last penny even the bosses have spent personal time on the company clock. I know this because I've been on both sides.
A reasonable person would realize that draconian systems cause much more waste than rational limits ever do. The problem is, computers are very easy to monitor so they end up getting all the focus of nosey bosses. Employees are smart enough to get around this, though it takes more time out of their day. Excessive monitoring is a loss for everyone.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Less likely, or do you let your ISP set up your computer for you? The attack is only possible as described if the attacker can somehow install the root CA certifcate of his CA into his victim's browser. That's trivial in a corporate setting, but more difficult for an ISP.