The report (pdf) was conducted for Proofpoint, a company that sells email monitoring software, so it has a vested interest in showing executives that they can't trust their workers. So take these juicy findings with a grain of salt:
- 32.1% of companies surveyed employ staff to read or analyze outbound email.
- 16.9% of companies surveyed had at least one person on staff whose primary job was to monitor outbound email.
- 37% of companies surveyed perform regular audits of outbound email.
- The companies surveyed estimate that 18.9% of outbound email includes content that poses a risk to the company (Keep in mind -- this is what the company's estimate. That's a far cry from saying that 1 in 5 outbound messages could actually bring the company down).
In other words, either companies really do have a lot to worry about, or they overreact to employees' meek efforts to connect in some way with the world outside their cubicles. We'll let you draw your own conclusions.
