If email came with a health warning it would have to say something like:

CAUTION: EMAIL CAN BRING DOWN YOUR NETWORK, CRASH YOUR APPLICATIONS, STEAL YOUR CONFIDENTIAL DATA, GET YOU THROWN IN JAIL AND DESTROY YOUR COMPANY’S REPUTATION.

When you think about the risks, it’s amazing we let email into our enterprises at all. Then again, just try switching it off…

Every enterprise has to find a balance between security and the ability to carry on conducting business freely. This short guide is about finding that balance. By following some basic principles, there’s no reason you can’t let legitimate business email move into, out of and within your enterprise while stopping the things that cause damage: viruses, spam, spyware, trojans, phishing, Denial of Service attacks, the loss of sensitive data and the collection of illegal, immoral and just plain offensive material.

There’s no escaping it: the people behind these threats are getting increasingly sophisticated and well-funded. The only real defense is the vigilant application of policy, technology and processes designed to keep email safe and secure.