A survey shows that 68 percent of U.S. employees who use e-mail at work have sent or received e-mail via their work e-mail account that could place their company at risk. Despite this, 92 percent of these employees don't believe they have ever sent a risky e-mail. These statistics indicate a discrepancy between employees' perceived and actual risks.

The survey examined the e-mail habits of over 1,000 individuals who use e-mail at work and uncovered a number of issues that raise concerns for businesses -- in the way employees are using and storing their corporate e-mail.

According to the results, a majority of employees (61 percent) admit they have used e-mail at work for personal use. Results also show that nearly half (48 percent) say they have sent or received joke e-mails, funny pictures/movies, funny stories of a questionable tone (e.g., racy/sexual content, politically incorrect), while one in five (22 percent) say they have sent or received a password or log-in information via e-mail. Sharing this type of content though e-mails could pose significant risks to businesses, either from a possible security breach or employee-driven lawsuits. Respondents were given a list of nine categories that could be considered medium to high risk; only 32 per cent said they had never sent or received e-mail in any of those categories.

While a majority of employees (73 percent) who use e-mail at work are aware of corporate e-mail policies, less than half (46 per cent) say they "always" adhere to the policy. Forty-one percent of employees who use e-mail would prefer to keep important e-mails indefinitely; many businesses place limits on the amount of e-mail that can be stored.

The survey reports that half of employees who use e-mail at work (51 percent) have saved e-mail outside the corporate network, putting valuable and sometimes confidential information at risk of falling into the wrong hands. For organizations that are not archiving their e-mail, this practice of saving data outside the controls of the corporate network presents an even greater risk, particularly in a litigation situation.

Additional findings from the survey, conducted by Harris Interactive for Fortiva include (among U.S. employed adults who use e-mail at work):

• Those who earn over US$75K a year are more likely to save work-related e-mail outside of the company's network (62 per cent vs. 41 per cent of employees who earn less than $50K a year)
• 73 per cent admit to knowing their company has an email policy; yet less than half (46 per cent) admit to always making sure they comply with policy before sending a note
• Nine per cent have used company e-mail to submit their resume to another company
• 22 percent have sent personal details to HR including Social Security numbers, salary details, or medical information via e-mail