Organizations are struggling to enforce both mandatory regulatory rules as well as internal corporate policies governing email content and distribution. One of the biggest obstacles is determining whether or not the content of an email, or its attachment, is subject to any policy rules or restrictions. This whitepaper describes the techniques required to perform intelligent, accurate content analysis and the shortcomings of most current approaches.
Effective Content Analysis
for Email Inspection & Control
A Whitepaper By: Nemx Software Corporation 14 Poplarwood Avenue Ottawa, Ontario K2S 1V3 Canada
Copyright 2007, Nemx Software Corporation. All rights reserved. Effective Content Analysis for Email Control
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Email Control-Understanding the Issue ............................................................................... 3 Content-based vs. Access-based Rules .................................................................................. 4
Effective Email Content Analysis ........................................................................................... 6 The Secret to Accurate Content Analysis................................................................................ 6 Shortcomings of Common Content Analysis Techniques ........................................................... 6 Key Words/Phrases......................................................................................................... 6 Bayesian Analysis........................................................................................................... 7
Key Features Of Intelligent Content Analysis (ICA) .............................................................. 7 Semantic Inference......................................................................................................... 8 Positional Analysis .......................................................................................................... 8 Linguistic Analysis .......................................................................................................... 8 Term Weighting.............................................................................................................. 9 Information Concepts...................................................................................................... 9
Other Considerations .......................................................................................................... 10
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 11
www.nemx.com Copyright 2007, Nemx Software Corporation. All rights reserved. Page.2 of 11 Effective Content Analysis for Email Control
This white paper will describe the techniques and capabilities required to provide intelligent, effective content analysis for email monitoring, compliance and control applications and discuss the shortcomings of traditional key word/key phrase solutions. 1There will be 103 billion corporate email messages per day in 2008.2Nearly 97% of most companies' communications are via email. 3Over 75% of the documents created by the enterprise get circulated by email. At the same time as this burgeoning growth in email volume and use has occurred enterprises are facing numerous strict new regulations, both externally and internally imposed, governing the disclosure, safekeeping and distribution of personal, private, financial and other corporate sensitive information. No wonder email content control has become a major concern for virtually every organization. Email Control-Understanding the Issue Effective management and control of the information flowing through corporate email systems is imperative, in some cases mandatory. As the statistics above clearly illustrate, organizations have seen their corporate email system become a de facto repository and distribution mechanism for the vast majority of their data and corporate knowledge. What's more, vast amounts of personal, non-business related, and other types of possibly inappropriate information is flowing through (and stored 4within!) corporate email networks. Once inside the email environment it is extremely difficult to protect and control the information. In recent years new rules and laws have been enacted such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA), Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA), SEC Rule 17a, Personal Information Protection & Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA, Canada), and others that strictly govern the protection, use and sharing of specific types of information. All these regulations recognize email as a valid record of corporate communication, conversation and behaviour. This has had far reaching implications in terms of corporate risk ... [download for more]
