In message <000001c4bc26$e2876640$3fb068d5@ntlworld>, at 14:14:19 on
Wed, 27 Oct 2004, Ian Welton <[log in to unmask]> writes
>> It is not possible with email systems I know of (groupwise,
>> outlook) to search accross all accounts in one sweep. Maybe
>> in the future or already technology I am not aware of, but
>> not at the moment for sure.
>
>To my certain knowledge software existed at least four years ago which had
>that very functionality as part of an early beta addition to one of the
>established security/audit packages. If it has not been developed any
>further I wonder why? With FOI as well now the market would certainly seem
>to be there.
There are all sorts of problems implementing such a thing. Here's one
example:
You deploy some powerful snoopery take 'secret' copies of all the emails
your employees send and receive, and keep these in a central store.
[This will be a doubly clever trick if any of your employees send mail
from a notebook PC when out of the office].
You have an email policy that decrees that individuals manage their
local copy of the mail-base to delete particular kinds of emails on a
series of timed schedules.
How can you make the central store mirror the individual deletions made
by the users (it's not a functionality built into typical clients, and
there's no network traffic to snoop)? And is it even desirable? As an
audit trial it might make sense to keep the central emails longer, but
then you have a greater risk that incriminating material is kept hanging
around. If you delete them at the same time that the users are
*supposed* to, then they might not have yet; and so you'll always have
to search all the user PCs just in case.
--
Roland Perry
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