Proofpoint’s 4th annual study of outbound email and content security issues (http://www.proofpoint.com/outbound), found that outbound email and other electronic communication protocols continue to grow as a source of risk for companies.Proofpoint’s survey of 308 email decision-makers at large U.S. companies shows expanding concern over sensitive information leaving enterprises through outbound email and other electronic communications channels.
The study found that 32.1% of surveyed companies with 1,000 or more employees hire staff to read or analyse the contents of outbound email. 38.8% of larger companies surveyed (those with more than 20,000 employees) employ staff for this purpose. Additionally, 16.9% of companies surveyed employ staff whose primary or exclusive job responsibility is to read or otherwise analyse email content.
Nearly 28% have terminated employees for email policy violations; 20% have disciplined employees for improper use of blogs/message boards; 14% for social network violations; 11% for improper use of media sharing sites.
Email remains a primary source of information leakage, which can result in regulatory compliance violations, legal problems and loss of competitive position. Respondents estimated that nearly 20% of all outbound email poses a legal, regulatory or financial risk.
More than a third of surveyed companies investigated a suspected email leak of confidential or proprietary information in the past 12 months.
Source: Proofpoint