Are the bad guys winning?

Three years ago at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates predicted that by 2006, the problem of unsolicited junk e-mail messages would be solved.

How wrong can a billionaire tech-visionary be? It’s now the end of 2006 and the problem is worse than ever. In fact, in early December, the European Commission chastised member countries for doing too little to enforce the European Union’s directive intended to tackle spam. It pointed out that spam accounts for as much as 80 per cent of the e-mails being sent today. Its message is clear: Right now, the bad guys are winning.

That has got me thinking about where else so-called ‘bad guys’ might be winning in the battle to manage enterprise information more efficiently. In a recent survey, for example, 1,000 working adults said that not only would they consider taking confidential information (such as customer contact details) with them when they leave a job, but also that they’d consider it within their rights to do so. The use of portable storage devices – USB sticks, Apple iPods, smartphones and digital cameras – is only making the problem of insider data theft worse, and this is the subject of this month’s cover feature, The Enemy Within.

But inappropriate and even dangerous misuse of corporate data by employees is not always intentional. This month’s case study, on brewery company Young’s, shows that employee misuse of e-mail was, in fact, down to a lack of education and an up-to-date acceptable usage guide, rather than malicious intent.

So check first: Is better information management at your organisation a matter of taking on the bad guys or setting well-meaning but misinformed employees on the right course? Either way, good luck in your efforts!

Jessica Twentyman

Consulting editor

Features

Workshop: Web content management Free
The term ‘user’ is virtually meaningless. Killer web content is the product of knowing who your website visitors are and what activity they want to perform on your site. By Gerry McGovern.

Workshop: Forms processing Free
Jon Mell kicks-off a new series of workshops on automated forms processing by introducing the latest tools, techniques and technologies.

Trend tracker: Spam Free
Three years ago, Microsoft’s Bill Gates promised that the problem of spam would be defeated. Today, it is worse than ever. What’s gone wrong?

Q&A: Fish4 Free
Fish4, the homes, cars and job-ads website, has recently made a big investment in enterprise-search technology that will serve as a launch pad for a host of new products and services. Enterprise Information spoke to Fish4's chief technology officer Richard Yeo about the company’s mission to deliver the best possible end-user experience.

Cover story: The enemy within Free
The greatest threat to your company's confidential information may not be hackers or viruses, but a trusted corporate insider with a portable storage device.

Regulars

The last word Free
Projects are the core drivers of change in any organisation. But change relies heavily upon integrated process, software, hierarchy and behavioural transformation. The fact that many projects fail to deliver what they were meant to should not be a surprise...

Opinion: Lynda Rathbone Free
Since the early days of website design, a number of trends have come and (thankfully) gone. Once the grey background was behind us, for example, designers started applying new tags like <blink> with great enthusiasm, often making the web page a living nightmare.

Case study: Young's Brewery Free
When Young’s Brewery examined e-mail usage among its workforce, it found that e-mail was used for the full gamut of contractual business. Yet often, staff were making fundamental e-mail faux pas – such as deleting messages as soon as they were sent.