Jury's Out on Email Scrutiny

Does email surveillance really work? Securities broker/dealer firms surveyed in a new report say it pays off, but critics say it may also breed a false sense of security.

More than half the respondents to the survey -- 63 percent -- say email surveillance has given them greater visibility into their legal or regulatory risks. But overall, the organizations aren't finding much risky behavior: 96 percent said that less than 1 percent of their messages flagged for review violated federal securities laws or their internal policies.

The survey, conducted by secure email archiving vendor Fortiva and a law firm, Pitney Hardin LLP, queried 100 broker-dealer organizations in North America that monitor and review their employees' email messages, some of which were Fortiva customers. The securities broker/dealer industry is required by the Nasdaq and NYSE to review any electronic correspondence with the public.

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Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading