Top 10 tips for setting a secure communications policy

By Ken Beer

January 22, 2003 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - Employee misuse of corporate e-mail has been a source of liability for numerous organizations, and many are now moving to develop policies that define appropriate usage. Businesses are also increasingly adopting policies to ensure that government regulations are met, sensitive business data is secure and customer privacy is protected.
Below, in no particular order, are the top 10 things IT policy-makers should consider when developing corporate e-mail policies.

1. Clearly outline all personal use restrictions.
One of a company's paramount concerns when developing a corporate e-mail policy should be to explicitly define what constitutes acceptable use of the organization's e-mail system. The policy should clearly state whether personal use is permitted, and if so, how much (number of e-mail messages, percentage of hours in the office, etc.). If employees are granted personal use, steps should be taken to outline what types of correspondence and content will be considered unacceptable or offensive.


	Ken Beer is product line manager of Tumbleweed Communications, a Redwood City, Calif.- based provider of secure messaging applications. He can be reached at ken.beer@tumbleweed.com

2. Unauthorized transmission of company trade secrets, confidential information or privileged communications is strictly prohibited.
Electronic versions of company business plans, human resource files and product development road maps have rapidly replaced physical materials as an organization's most valuable corporate assets. Leading analyst groups estimate that between 70% and 90% of a company's intellectual capital now exists in digital form, and Gartner Inc. values the loss of business information through e-mail at more than $24 billion per year. It's vital that every employee understand the critical seriousness of transmitting the company's digital assets and know that it isn't permitted without specific consent.

3. Be aware of industry-specific government regulations.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act represent a pair of government-mandated privacy regulations that are dramatically changing the way health care organizations and financial services firms can use e-mail. Both acts detail specific measures that regulated companies must take to adequately protect patient/customer data in transit. The Securities and Exchange Commission also has a set of auditing and privacy requirements that regulated companies must adhere to, including the archiving of particular e-mails based on the sender, recipient or content contained therein.

4. Inform employees that their e-mail activities may be monitored.
In recent years, there have been a handful of cases where employees tried to bring legal proceedings against their employers for monitoring what they thought were private e-mail conversations. However, the company is the one that bears the burden for

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