Rogue e-mailing rife in SA, according to Mimecast

Mimecast's Generation Gmail Report has revealed that rogue e-mailing - using personal e-mail accounts to send and receive work documents - and the associated information security risk is exacerbated by the laissez-faire attitude of most South African employers.

The internationally commissioned study investigating attitudes to work e-mail use was conducted in South Africa, the UK, US and Canada. The South African results revealed how noticeably local attitudes to e-mail differ. Christelle Hicklin, customer experience manager at Mimecast SA, says what makes the South African results so interesting are the extremes.

Eighty-two percent of respondents say e-mail is their preferred method of communication, versus only 66% of the total sample. “An incredible 97% of South Africans consider it essential that their e-mail is problem-free. This understanding of how much South African corporate users love e-mail explains some of the other, no less extraordinary, but a lot more worrying results,” says Hicklin.

Eighty-one percent of South African e-mail users send work e-mails from their personal e-mail accounts, with one in five doing it on a regular basis. While almost 80% realise this exposes their companies to risk, close to half feel it's still an acceptable practice.

“When I first read these results I was dumbfounded,” says Hicklin. “The obvious disconnect between knowing something is bad but not changing behaviour is perplexing. That is until I realised that most e-mail users are choosing what they consider to be the lesser of the two evils.”

Corporate users are working around the e-mail policies, mailbox limitations and e-mail size restriction to get their work done. The reason behind sending e-mail to and from personal e-mail accounts is primarily to work from home.

Seventy-one percent of respondents are simply trying to get the job done. Twenty-three percent use personal e-mail when the files are too big to get through the corporate server, and almost one in five use a personal account because the content of the e-mail is too confidential to trust the corporate network.

“All this information tells us that while data leakage is the biggest risk with rogue e-mailing, it is not what the average users intend. Only 6% admitted to using personal accounts to ensure that they could have the information once they left the company. It's funny when you think about it - it's our good old fashioned work ethic and can-do attitude that's putting companies at risk.”

Employees' attitudes to rogue e-mailing are made worse by South African organisations not taking responsibility for their e-mail policies.

“Employee behaviour can and should be influenced by company policy and culture. With only half of the respondents confirming the existence of a policy, it's clear that businesses need to get more actively involved in communicating, educating and enforcing e-mail usage that protect the company, while supporting the needs of the users. It appears that often organisations fail at both - setting rules and creating an e-mail environment that truly addresses the needs of their staff,” says Hicklin.

There are technology answers to the issue of rogue e-mailing. Addressing the issues of mailbox size limitations, message size restrictions and e-mail policy deployment can be done via technology, but the human issues require a much more human intervention.

“Companies need to start with a two-pronged approach. The needs of users must be balanced with clear policies and education programmes to ensure employees truly understand the impact of rogue e-mailing. The procedural clarity with some education and change management is the only way to protect organisations from their workaholic, productivity focused staff,” concludes Hicklin.

A copy of the global research is available for download at http://mimecast.com/generationgmailuk

and for the local research, please go to www.mimecast.com/generationgmailsa Please note that these are gated links and you will be asked for some information.