Written by: Bruce Naylor November 4th 2013

Cyber attacks against small business establishments as well as corporations are very common and many small business firms find it difficult to bear the financial loss created by such attacks. It has become all the more necessary to adopt effective steps at workplaces to ensure security of the computers. Many companies introduced training programs for the employees on how to ensure digital security. As the first step the employees are trained how to avoid spam as well as the attachments of the spam messages, how to avoid outside instant messaging clients etc. Improper and ineffective uses of E-mail through the company’s computers in many places have led to litigation in many cases. E-mail manners are quite essential for smooth running of a business.

Use of internet by staff

The staff members of various organizations are under the impression that their emails as well as web browsing etc. are confidential. The accessibility of the Exchange Server makes them to be under the impression that their privacy is protected. However, they are unaware of the fact that the purpose of the Exchange Server is to prevent outsiders to access the system. It is the prime duty of the management of corporate as well as small businesses to provide clear instructions to the staff members regarding safe as well as proper use of the computers as well as the Exchange Server. The employees must be strictly warned against entertaining spam. Improper as well as imperfect use of E-mail may also lead to legal issues and litigation. The managements should make it a point to inform in clear terms to each employee what are permitted and what are not permitted with regard to use of Email.

Privacy as a myth

In many organizations the employees are provided with separate rooms, filing cabinet and access to the network. Since these employees are provided access to the network through frequently changed passwords they are under the wrong impression that their files as well as browsing activities are 100% private. They are not aware of the truth that the system administrators are able to access each and everything on the network.

The real facts about Email
Email is not as secure as believed by many people. Emails that are stored on servers can be read by others. Just like any other electronic document emails also can be recovered. Many employees are under the wrong impression that once deleted the Emails are destroyed forever. System Administrators are able to read all Emails that are sent as well as received by the corporate network. Moreover, the software that is used for the network will log the entire communications. The e-mail addresses of the senders as well as the recipients and the time of transmission etc. are logged. The content of each email is stored on the mail servers. It is quite necessary for the management of an organization to keep these logs for the maintenance as well as trouble-free functioning of the network. The Emails that are either encoded or encrypted are only secure. All other Emails are insecure.