[Ecommerce] monitor e-mail

[Takeshi Muramoto]

http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/ecommerce

The Japan Times: Nov. 10, 2002

One in five major firms monitor e-mails by staff

More than one in five major Japanese companies monitor e-mail messages by
executives and rank-and-file employees to block leaks of corporate secrets
and customer information, according to a recent Kyodo News survey.
The survey of 100 major Japanese companies found that 22 of them routinely
check e-mail messages and 46 make it a rule to have retiring employees sign
confidentiality agreements to keep them from leaking secret information they
obtained in the course of their jobs.
The firms did not disclose how they monitor their employees' e-mails, but
experts say employers commonly install a system that automatically
identifies e-mails that contain designated words, such as "classified" or
"top secret," as well as the names of new products or technologies.
Employers are tightening surveillance to combat leaks of information by
staff in the wake of recent scandals, including the leak of Defense Agency
computer system data from a subcontractor of Fujitsu Ltd. that built the
system and the arrest of an employee of a NTT DoCoMo unit on suspicion of
downloading customers' communication records.
However, some experts say monitoring employees' e-mails could be a violation
of their privacy and could be used for purposes other than preventing
information leaks, such as evaluating their job performances or monitoring
their political beliefs.
The survey also found that 50 of the companies have new employees sign
confidentiality agreements and that 57 have clear in-house rules to punish
employees who leak corporate secrets.
Among other findings, 42 of the companies surveyed limit access to
security-sensitive rooms, protecting them with passwords and making them
only accessible with special keys, while 68 distinguish between general
documents and classified ones and limit access to classified ones in
accordance with an employee's rank.
Twenty-four companies have teams specializing in protecting corporate
information, according to the survey.
On Internet security, 29 companies separate in-house networks from outside
networks like the Internet, while 90 companies have installed firewall
systems to block unauthorized access to in-house networks and leaks of
corporate data, the survey found.
The 100 firms polled by Kyodo include major companies in various industrial
sectors.

Takeshi Muramoto
Consumer Law News Network
musan@mba.sphere.ne.jp