The most elementary safeguard is a password system that limits access to information to those authorized. Personal data and payroll, for instance, should be under electronic lock and key. Intranet administrators should also separate information accessible to clients or customers, such as company brochures, directories, non-sensitive files and software, from the rest of the company's data. IBM has developed Cryptolopes, which scrambles, then sends electronic mail. The Secure Electronic Transaction or SET standard, developed by MasterCard, Visa, Microsoft and other partners, is also expected to make sending credit card numbers across the electronic ether much safer.
Technology is no substitute for vigilance.
The network administrator ought to ensure that former employees no longer have access to company files or networks. He should also check intranet areas open to outsiders for viruses or prank files uploaded by a mischievous hacker. Network servers, after all, retain copies of messages, even when staff delete them from their e-mailboxes. Glitches may send messages to the wrong person. So let the sender beware.