Besides providing content filters, Tumbleweed MMS ensures that drugmakers' proprietary and confidential information stays secure, says Shannon Hakesley, a marketing manager at the Los Angeles company. It automatically directs sensitive messages to FDA's secure server where they can be encrypted before they reach the Internet. Once an objectionable or unauthorized message is found, these products can be programmed to respond in various ways. Almost always, they notify the mail system administrator. Some also can send the author of the message a pop-up warning or reminder about use policies.
Some customers program the software to produce periodic reports on incidents.
Even at intelligence agencies, employees often are allowed one or two slips of the keyboard, as long as it's a matter of offensive material rather than intentional threats or disclosure of sensitive information. Keith Thurston, an IT policy specialist at the General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy, says he's aware of at least one case in which a federal employee was fired for using e-mail as a tool for sexual harassment and to threaten a subordinate. Employees occasionally have challenged the disciplinary actions taken against them for misuse of e-mail, but the Merit Systems Protection Board and the courts have generally upheld agency sanctions. Warnings often come when employees are hired and during periodic IT, ethics or security training. Many agencies display them on computer login screens and Web pages.