Commercial risks
Apart from the issues with content we've already discussed is the fact that an email can have the same legal force as a piece of snail-mail. In many companies, snail-mail is vetted before dispatch, but email?

The simplest way to handle this is to force the addition of a disclaimer text on the email. You can do this in R5 at the client with an email signature file. There's no way in the Domino R5 server to add such text directly. Lotus Knowledgebase item 174796 explains ways in which it can be done, but I can't see many administrators following the Domino system modifications outlined in it. It also says that there are third-party applications available. SecuriQ.Trailer is one of these. It enables fixed text or text customized for the email sender to be automatically attached to the outbound mail items.

Private email traffic
Private email traffic in the business is a real problem to some companies for a whole variety of reasons. Some reasons are technical, like large volumes on slow networks, for example. And some reasons are ethical, like employees carrying on their own business in company time. Many companies have specific clauses in Corporate Security Policies or in employment contracts about private email.

Domino has the ability to enable blocks to be made on specific people sending external email, and on email to and from specific sites. See the server Configuration document, Router controls.

These are certainly valuable controls, but they're a bit unfocussed. One of our customers occasionally stops their router for an hour and then examines Mail.Box contents. That's quite time-consuming, and of course it disrupts email while the router is stopped.

Frankly, it's hard to detect private emails on the fly. Slang words would be one pointer. So would the use of profanities. SecuriQ.Mailsafe enables copies of all mails to be kept as they pass through the server, the way many banks routinely record phone conversations.

Wrap up
We've looked at some of the threats to your email, and we've looked at some ways in which they can be combated. We've mentioned our SecuriQ family of products a few times, so we'll just say if you're interested in more information or an evaluation version, you can visit the developer's Web site at http://www.group-technologies.com. The 45-day evaluation version contains the complete software with nothing taken out.

John Carroll is Product Manager for Unipart Advanced Learning Systems. Before that John spent six years as a Notes consultant, and before that, he spent many years in IBM. He's the contact point if you want more details of the SecuriQ product set. He can be contacted by email at john_carroll@unipart.co.uk, or through http://www.uals.co.uk. DominoPower Contributing Editor Mick Moignard is a Principal CLP with UALS (Unipart Advanced Learning Systems), a Lotus Premier Partner in the UK. Contact Mick at mick_moignard@unipart.co.uk.