Email - You have risk
Email - You have risk
Image & Data Manager has discovered that the majority of Australian businesses are placing themselves at risk through their email system. A survey conducted through the IDM.Net.au Web Site found that email is accepted as part of a business transaction, yet emails are deleted and lost and regularly no record is kept of the business communication.
If these emails are considered part of a financial transaction, it is likely that by losing and destroying emails, Australian businesses are contravening archiving and corporation laws.
Email's growth has been exponential and the survey uncovered that for 52 per cent of respondents 50 per cent of their email was internal. When asked by what percentage their email has increased by, 45 per cent said by 100 per cent, 28 per cent felt they had received a 50 per cent increase in email and 17 per cent a 25 per cent increase.
Part of the increase is the change in perception, 77 per cent of Australian businesses use email as part of their financial transactions. Yet the higher importance has not been reflected in management and retention of email. Emails are deleted by individuals on a regular basis, with 42 per cent deleting daily and 19 per cent weekly. Very few emails are printed as official records. Less than five emails are printed out by 50 per cent of those that took part in the survey, whilst 19 per cent never print an email and only 20 per cent print out 10 emails. Despite these answers, 79 per cent of respondents believe their company has an email protection system and 64 per cent believe that there is an enforced email policy.
The number of emails lost was also alarming, with 48 per cent claiming that they had lost important emails through technical faults, virus attacks and other technical problems with email.
If these emails are considered part of a financial transaction, it is likely that by losing and destroying emails, Australian businesses are contravening archiving and corporation laws.
"While there is no general provision dealing with the retention of emails in Australia, the Corporations Law requires financial documents to be retained for five years and Government departments, under the Archive Act, need to retain emails for seven years. Clearly these results show that companies and their directors are at risk of prosecution," said Dr Adrian McCullagh a solicitor with law firm Freehills.
The survey was carried out in November and December 2002. Last year was a memorable year for the destruction of emails and documents at Enron and Andersen as the two companies fought accusations of illegal practices; resulting in Andersen losing its court case.
Scott Phillips, the regional manager for Legato Systems in Australia believes that Australian businesses are not fully prepared to archive and retain emails with data storage and records management applications. (To see survey questions, click here).
The Image & Data Manager survey was carried out online. Over 240 professionals completed the survey, which was sponsored by Legato Systems. Further details of the survey will be revealed in the January/February issue of Image & Data Manager.
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