Not Just Words: Enforce Your Email and Web Acceptable Usage Policies

Not Just Words: Enforce Your Email
and Web Acceptable Usage Policies
By Nancy Flynn, Executive Director, The ePolicy InstituteAuthor, The ePolicy Handbook, E-Mail Rules, Instant Messaging Rules, Blog Rules, Writing Effective E-Mail, and E-Mail ManagementPrefaceThe ePolicy InstituteT, www.epolicyinstitute.com, and MessageLabs, www.messagelabs.com, have created this business guide to provide Best-Practices Guidelines for Managing Workplace Email and Web Use to Minimize Risks and Maximize Compliance. Through the implementation of strategic Email and Web Acceptable Usage Policies and Procedures, incorporating clearly written rules, formal employee education, and proven technology solutions, U.S. employers can enhance productivity, cut costs, reduce (and in some cases eliminate) the likelihood of email- and web- related litigation, regulatory investigations, security breaches, and other electronic disasters.
Not Just Words: Enforce Your Email and Web Acceptable Usage Policies is produced as a general best-practices guidebook with the understanding that neither the author, ePolicy Institute Executive Director Nancy Flynn, nor the publisher, MessageLabs, is engaged in rendering advice on legal, regulatory, or other issues. Before acting on any rule, policy, or procedure addressed in Not Just Words: Enforce Your Email and Web Acceptable Usage Policies, you should consult with legal counsel or other professionals competent to review the relevant issue.
The ePolicy Institute is a leading source of speaking, training, and consulting services related to workplace email and Internet policies, communication, and management. The ePolicy Institute is dedicated to helping employers limit email and web risks, including litigation and regulatory investigations, while enhancing employees' electronic communication skills. Visit www.epolicyinstitute.com to learn more.
MessageLabs is a leading provider of integrated messaging and web security services, with over 18,000 clients ranging from small business to the Fortune 500 located in more than 86 countries. MessageLabs provides a range of managed security services to protect, control, encrypt and archive communications across Email, Web and Instant Messaging. These services are delivered by MessageLabs globally distributed infrastructure and supported 24/7 by security experts. This provides a convenient and cost-effective solution for managing and reducing risk and providing certainty in the exchange of business information. © 2008 Nancy Flynn, The ePolicy Institute.T All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Author and Executive Director Nancy Flynn, The ePolicy Institute, www.epolicyinstitute.com, 2300 Walhaven Ct., Columbus, OH, 43220. Phone 614/451-3200. Email: nancy@epolicyinstitute.com.Table of Contents
Email & Web Rule #1: 4 Comply with Legal and Regulatory Rules
Email & Web Rule #2: 4 Enforce Acceptable Usage Policy with Training and Technology
Email & Web Rule #3: 4 Control Written Content to Control Risk
Email & Web Rule #4: 5 Protect Resources, Preserve Productivity and Prevent Lawsuits
Email & Web Rule #5: 6 Personal Use Heightens Risk
Email & Web Rule #6 6 Exercise Your Legal Right to Monitor
Email & Web Rule #7: 7 No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
Email & Web Rule #8: 8 Lock Out Malicious Intruders
Email & Web Rule #9: 8 Annual Review of Acceptable Usage Policies
Sample Email Acceptable Usage Policy 9
Sample Web Acceptable Usage Policy 12
About The ePolicy Institute 13
About MessageLabs 13Email & Web Rule #1: Email & Web Rule #2: Litigation and Regulations, Productivity Apply Policy, Training and Technology to and Security Create the Need for Strategic H elp Manage Email and Web Risks E mail and Web Management For responsible organizations operating in the age Employee use of the company computer system of email and the web, acceptable usage policies can open any organization to potentially costly are essential business tools. Clearly written and and protracted risks including litigation,... [download for more]