Poll of 330 U.S. firm shows trademark and IP protection top concerns
Concerned about the need to protect intellectual property and trade secrets, more than one in three surveyed technology firms in the United States said they employ staff to monitor and analyze outbound e-mail.
Among companies with more than 20,000 employees, 40 per cent said they hire staff to monitor outgoing email, compared with 36 per cent of all respondents.
The poll of was conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Proofpoint, Inc., a vendor of anti-spam and other types of e-mail security software. The poll went out to 1,000 tech firms with 1,000 employees or more. About 330 tech companies responded.
Of the firms that took part in the survey, one in three (35 per cent) said they have investigated a suspected e-mail leak of confidential or proprietary information in the past 12 months.
One in four (27 per cent) have dismissed a staffer for violating e-mail policies in the past 12 months. Half (50 per cent) have disciplined an employee for such a breach.
Of the concerns named by respondents, protecting intellectual property and trade secrets topped the list at 77 per cent. Worries about inappropriate or offensive material in outgoing email ranked lower at 63 per cent.
Asked how they were addressing such concerns, most respondents (58 per cent) said they use outbound features in anti-spam software. Depending on the software, such features range from placing a limit on the size of outgoing attachments to detecting e-mail for certain keywords or information patterns.
The next most common strategy (with 46 per cent of responses) was conducting regular audits of outgoing e-mail. Using encryption technology for sensitive e-mail ranked third at 45 per cent.
Other solutions included monitoring data traffic and content at the Internet Protocol (IP) level (39 per cent), using technology to detect vulgar or offensive content in outgoing e-mail (34 per cent) and using technology to detect intellectual property in outgoing e-mail (33 per cent).
On top of the one-in-three (36 per cent) respondents that said they employ staff to read outgoing e-mail, another 26 per cent said they intend to deploy such staff in the future.
A number of companies said they were concerned about sensitive information leaving the company in Web-based e-mail. One in four (26 per cent) said they use technology to monitor e-mail in hotmail or Gmail accounts.
One in four (24 per cent) also said they use technology to monitor content in instant messaging traffic.
Among companies with more than 20,000 employees, 40 per cent said they hire staff to monitor outgoing email, compared with 36 per cent of all respondents.
The poll of was conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Proofpoint, Inc., a vendor of anti-spam and other types of e-mail security software. The poll went out to 1,000 tech firms with 1,000 employees or more. About 330 tech companies responded.
Of the firms that took part in the survey, one in three (35 per cent) said they have investigated a suspected e-mail leak of confidential or proprietary information in the past 12 months.
One in four (27 per cent) have dismissed a staffer for violating e-mail policies in the past 12 months. Half (50 per cent) have disciplined an employee for such a breach.
Of the concerns named by respondents, protecting intellectual property and trade secrets topped the list at 77 per cent. Worries about inappropriate or offensive material in outgoing email ranked lower at 63 per cent.
Asked how they were addressing such concerns, most respondents (58 per cent) said they use outbound features in anti-spam software. Depending on the software, such features range from placing a limit on the size of outgoing attachments to detecting e-mail for certain keywords or information patterns.
The next most common strategy (with 46 per cent of responses) was conducting regular audits of outgoing e-mail. Using encryption technology for sensitive e-mail ranked third at 45 per cent.
Other solutions included monitoring data traffic and content at the Internet Protocol (IP) level (39 per cent), using technology to detect vulgar or offensive content in outgoing e-mail (34 per cent) and using technology to detect intellectual property in outgoing e-mail (33 per cent).
On top of the one-in-three (36 per cent) respondents that said they employ staff to read outgoing e-mail, another 26 per cent said they intend to deploy such staff in the future.
A number of companies said they were concerned about sensitive information leaving the company in Web-based e-mail. One in four (26 per cent) said they use technology to monitor e-mail in hotmail or Gmail accounts.
One in four (24 per cent) also said they use technology to monitor content in instant messaging traffic.
