E-Policy Best Practices Guide

The ePolicy Institute
and St. Bernard Software
E-Policy Best Practices
A Business Guide to Compliant & Secure
Internet, Instant Messaging (IM),
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Email
Communications
By
Nancy Flynn
Executive Director
The ePolicy Institute E-Policy Best Practices Guide © 2005 Nancy Flynn, The ePolicy Institute. All rights reserved. This publication may not be Copyright & reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by Trademark 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. Conact Executive Director Nancy Flynn via e-mail: nancy@ePolicyinstitute.com . © 2005 St. Bernard Software, Inc. All rights reserved. The St. Bernard Software logo is a trademark of St. Bernard Software Inc. iPrism is a registered trademark of St. Bernard Software Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are hereby acknowledged.
2 © 2005 Nancy Flynn, The ePolicy Institute. All rights reserved E-Policy Best Practices Guide
Table of Contents
Preface ........................... 4 E-Policy Best Practices Overview ............... 5 Internet Policy Best Practices Overview ............. 6 P2P Best Practices Overview ................... 8 Email Best Practices Overview ................. 9 IM Best Practices Overview ................... 10 E-Policy Overview ........................ 12 Appendix: Sample Policies .................. 13
3 © 2005 Nancy Flynn, The ePolicy Institute. All rights reserved E-Policy Best Practices Guide
The ePolicy InstituteT, www.epolicyinstitute.com, and St. Bernard SoftwareT, Inc., Preface www.stbernard.com, have created this business guide to provide best-practices guidelines for developing and implementing effective workplace e-policies and in the process, create clean and compliant, safe and secure electronic communications that are less likely to trigger a workplace lawsuit, regulatory investigation, security breach, or other electronic disaster. The ePolicy Institute/St. Bernard guidebook, E-Policy Best Practices: A Business Guide to Compliant & Secure Internet, Peer-to-Peer, Email & IM Communications is produced as a general best-practices guide with the understanding that neither the author (Nancy Flynn, Executive Director of The ePolicy Institute), nor the publisher (St. Bernard Software, Inc.) is engaged in rendering advice on legal, regulatory, technology, security or other issues. Before acting on any issue, rule, or policy addressed in E-Policy Best Practices: A Business Guide to Compliant & Secure Internet, Peer-to-Peer, Email & IM Communications, you should consult with professionals competent to review the relevant issues. E-Policy Best Practices: A Business Guide to Compliant & Secure Internet, Peer-to-Peer, E-mail & IM Communications is based on material excerpted from author Nancy Flynn's books Instant Messaging Rules (Amacom 2004), E-mail Rules (Amacom 2003), The ePolicy Handbook (Amacom 2001), and Writing Effective E-mail (Crisp 2003, 1999). The ePolicy Institute is a leading source of speaking, training and consulting services related to workplace email, IM, Internet, and blog risks, policies and management. Based in Columbus, Ohio, the ePolicy Institute is dedicated to helping employers limit email/IM/Internet/blog risks, including litigation and regulatory investigations, while enhancing employees' email communications skills. Visit www.epolicyinstitute.com to learn more. St. Bernard Software, Inc., is a global provider of security solutions that help small and medium-sized businesses protect their network infrastructure at the perimeter and system levels. Using a multi-layered security architecture strategy, St. Bernard Software's range of solutions harden business critical systems against threats and exploits; provide policy-based Internet management; protect email messaging; and secure the data backup process to cover files that are open or in use. Deployed across millions of ... [download for more]