Liability

Spam can force organizations to deal with lawsuits filed by employees for creating a hostile working environment. Spam containing pornography, insulting content or fraudulent phishing schemes can expose organizations that have not taken reasonable steps to combat such attacks. Employees unfamiliar with company policies may forward such content to fellow employees or even contacts outside company, resulting in sexual harassment or countless other liability lawsuits.

Each organization’s exposure to such lawsuits varies, but large awards to plaintiff are not uncommon when they do occur. In fact, October 2002 issue of TechRepublic states that “the average jury award against employers in [sexual harassment lawsuits] is $250,000. That amount often triples when attorney fees and litigation costs are added to mix.”

Reputation Cost

The cost of spam to a business’ reputation is equally difficult to define. The cost is nothing until something catastrophic—like a phishing attack—happens. The average individual victim of identity theft loses about $500, and businesses lose an average of $4,800. By allowing phishing and spoofing attacks into your business’ network, your organization is exposing itself, its brand and its employees to enormous risk. If your organization’s trademarks or brand are used in phishing attacks, cost to your company’s brand is estimated at between $100,000 and $150,000.

What You Can Do Now To Stop Spam

Knowing risks involved in spam is first step to solving problem. CipherTrust’s FREE whitepaper, “Controlling Spam: The IronMail Way” describes issues that put your email system at risk. Download it today to learn more about how you can stop spam, secure your email system, and protect your company and employees from email-borne threats.

Part II of this series will describe issues involved in determining ROI for anti-virus software and services as they apply to email.

Lost Data

Employees are storing more and more confidential, mission-critical information on personal workstations and internal networks every day. Financial and employee records, trade secrets and internal emails are all at risk should a malicious virus choose to corrupt or destroy them.

Should any or all of this information be attacked by a virus or worm, documents stored on user machines and email servers risk destruction or corruption, rendering days or weeks worth of work useless. While some of work may be recoverable, help desk resource utilization and third-party forensic experts will add to total cost of attack.

Reputation and Credibility Erosion

Falling victim to a virus attack will likely result in lost confidence from business partners and customers and affect your enterprise’s perceived trustworthiness in marketplace. According to Gartner, “Enterprises that spread viruses, worms, spam and denial-of-service attacks will find not only that malicious software can hinder their profitability, but also that other businesses will disconnect from them if they are considered to be risky.” While an attack may not be your fault, it is most certainly your problem.

Stay a Step Ahead of Enemy

Fully understanding risks posed by viruses and worms is only beginning of your battle against them. To learn how to confront numerous dangers to your enterprise network, read CipherTrust’s FREE whitepaper, “Next-Generation Virus Defense: An Overview of IronMail Zero-Day Virus Protection.”

Part III of this series will consider issues involved in determining ROI for email policy enforcement as it relates to regulatory compliance, asset/IP protection, liability and reputation.