| In a recent study conducted by the government | | | | those words and highlight them if necessary. This |
| it was found that almost 30% of businesses still | | | | is a great way of controlling the flow of |
| didnt have an adequate email archive policy to | | | | information in and out of the building. |
| enable them to comply fully with legislation. | | | | Information is a commodity, and confidentiality is |
| Considering that some of this legislation has been | | | | jealously guarded. Even inadvertent lapses of |
| around for almost 15 years, its a bit surprising. | | | | information security can be tracked and remedied |
| Originally it was only public companies that had to | | | | by discipline or retraining. Intended leaks of |
| preserve email archives for a set period of time, | | | | information can also be managed effectively by |
| in case of inspections by the SEC or other body. | | | | having an audit trail from the originator to the |
| Changes in legislation over the years meant that | | | | recipient. |
| every company had to keep business documents | | | | If the company is small and cutting edge, this |
| for set periods, including emails. | | | | method of controlling data is convenient as a |
| Depending on the legislation in question, these | | | | vendor can manage it without them seeing the |
| documents should be kept for a period of | | | | information itself. This is especially good for those |
| between 3 and 5 years. But that isnt all. They | | | | companies without IT or Legal departments to |
| should be accurately duplicated and stored in two | | | | take care of things in-house. |
| different locations, be time stamped, indexed, | | | | This kind of solution invariably costs money, but a |
| tamper-proof, secure and free from interference | | | | hosted email archive is much cheaper to run than |
| or being modified. They should also be available at | | | | a local one. Theres no need for extra hardware, |
| short notice to satisfy inspections or e-discovery | | | | staff, administration or training. The vendor takes |
| requests. | | | | care of all that. Most of these hosted models |
| An effective email archive isnt just useful for | | | | work on a per seat or scaled licensing scheme so |
| compliance. It can also prevent loss during disaster | | | | it can shrink or grow with the client. |
| recovery situations, be used to monitor | | | | So even ignoring the legislative requirements for |
| employees, monitor the flow of information | | | | an effective email archive, it still makes business |
| around and out of the company and to use as | | | | sense. The ability to control the flow of |
| evidence in contractual or other business dealings. | | | | commercial information and stop leaks as soon as |
| Employees dont like being monitored, but using | | | | they happen makes sense to any business. |
| email archives is a non-confrontational way of | | | | If you need to find out more about email |
| doing it. By checking email traffic after the fact, | | | | archiving or the laws surrounding email archiving |
| the monitoring is less intrusive and less time-critical | | | | you're encouraged to visit loc.gov/law or call your |
| as everything is stored. An effective archive will | | | | nearest government office. This article was |
| have keyword searches, can flag emails containing | | | | written on behalf of Smarsh Inc. |