Developing An Email Policy For Web Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Benefits of having an email policy

Discuss about the Email Policy for Web Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

The purpose of making this report is to emphasize on development of a formal email policy for an organization. Use of emails has revolutionized modern business and now for sending or receiving any kind of information, emails are used. It is an effective, secure and easy way to transfer business data at remote locations. Now due to emails, business organizations have ceased the paper work and no heap of files is maintained and most of the businesses are conducted via online. In case of online businesses, sending emails is considered a single way. Through emails business organizations can send their information easily and in secure way to its clients and customers with attachments of images and documents. But usage of email requires proper security and privacy for content that is attached with it. As we know that issues of hacking and phishing attacks are increasing day by day, that is why an email policy should be maintained by business organization that will provide help to maintain email content. As a security manager in my organization i.e. Web Solutions Pvt. Ltd., it is my responsibility to aware organization about development of formal email policy. Our company deals in IT solutions such web and mobile applications, software solutions and other advanced security tools. Emails, online messaging and calling are ways to communicate and share business information and these are also used in our organization. The main focus of this report is on development of a formal email policy for organization.

Discussion

Every business that uses emails requires a clear email policy. This thing actually prevents from wastage of time, protects data from vulnerable security threats and minimizes the risk of legal problems. That is why importance is given to email policy in every business organization.

From above discussed benefits it is cleared that why email policy should be implemented into our business organization.  In our business organization, confidential information is share among business clients over internet through emails, chats and calls. The prevention of these communication ways is necessary and email policy will provide help in it.  Otherwise heavy loss of information can occur. Email policy of a business organization consists of some restricted factors that must be considered by all employees. In email policy of our company following point should be considered: (Gfrlaw.com, 2005)

• Employee should use emails primarily for business purpose not for personal use. They should be restricted to use emails in their working hours.
• Excessive use emails, offensive jokes and other kind of illegal content may cause problems for business organization. Therefore, these things should be avoided.
• All business emails and its attachments should be in encrypted format and employees should not allow unauthorized persons to access their system.

Issues regarding usage of Email

Issues with email usage

The usage of email is an easy process but there are various issues that attached with usage of emails and must be considered here in this report. The major concerning issues are too many emails i.e. information overload, email ‘addiction’ and privacy and legal implications.

Too many Emails (Information overload)

Too many emails into inbox makes your inbox messy. Some employees complaint that they receive lots of email into their inbox and it is difficult for them to respond to every email. This thing makes their inbox messy. In case of no response for these emails, some companies may take serious actions. This huge amount of emails cause disappropropriateness of emails, wastage of time and it also puts impact on overall efficiency of business. That is why management of these emails have become so important.

Email Addiction

Email addiction is a habit to check emails many times in a day. If we treat like Americans then you will have habit to check emails after every 15 minutes in a day. If a person carries PDA into his/her pocket then problem of email addiction can be worst. According to estimation of doctors, near about 11 million people have emails habit and this habit put influence over their lives. A deep relationship with inbox should be managed by users appropriately. (Raphael, 2016)

Besides above discussed issues here we have some issues regarding privacy and legal implications. As we have already discussed above that privacy of email content is necessary to maintain, otherwise vulnerable attacks may cause some issues. Following are some essential privacy and legal implications that are common among emails and other online applications.

Distributed Attacks

To implement distributed attack, attackers require to introduce code like Trojan horse and back door programs to some trusted components those are further distributed to many other components those are connected with network. The spread of virus and malware is conducted through emails. It means, emails are main target of distributed attacks. Back door programs and other harmful programs are introduced by distributed attacks. (Policy Patrol, 2010)

Phishing Attacks

Phishing attack is also one of the major vulnerable attacks that is conducted by hackers. This attack works in a way that hackers create a fake website and that website may look like original site of banking or PayPal Website and send emails from those websites continuously with harmful data scripts and programs. Due to these reasons, phishing attack is considered to be harmful as compare to other network attacks.

Professionalism, Efficiency, and Protection from Liability

Hijack Attacks

Under this attack, hacker takes a session between two network users and disconnects one users from the communication. Other user does not know that he is transferring information to hackers not to other user. This attack is mostly used to access information from users by hackers. This whole process is done through email. Hijack attacks are harmful in nature and this is a big issues for privacy of emails.

Denial of Service Attacks

Denial of service attack is also a harmful attack. This attack is powerful enough to deny services of database for other users. Due to this attack, connected computers with server, cannot access this server. It causes heavy loss of information and users may not access essential information from database.

These are some major privacy and security issues for emails. Besides this, some legal implications such as violation of legal policies regarding cyber-security and other IT applications. If a user violates security standards of using IT and web applications such as emails then it may also cause problem of email privacy and security.

Email policy guides us about etiquettes that are necessary to follow while writing any professional email. In Web Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Company, various emails are sent to clients and customers daily. These are professional emails and must be writing in appropriate format with right information. The implementation of formal email policy consists of following benefits.

Professionalism

By writing emails in etiquette manners, our company conveys a professional message to receivers. Both national and international clients require professionalism in their business. (Che.ncsu.edu, 2016)

Efficiency

All emails those consist of much more effectiveness and accuracy, those emails are highly preferred and it restricts use of poorly worded emails. (Psychology Today, 2016)

Awareness about writing business or professional emails, protect company from costly law suits. Email writing in un-professional ways may lead to loss of business and many liabilities may need to pay.

In this way, email policy provides help to an organization for maintaining professionalism and efficiency while writing professional documents.

How Email Policy should be enforced

To stop problems that are faced by business employees while using emails and these problems we have already discussed in above section of this report must be managed controlled by implementing email policy. There are some steps those need to follow for implementing successful email policy.

• Setting a regular block of time to give respond to answers emails daily.
• Give priority to your emails and give answers only of important emails.
• Try to give answers for your emails in batches rather than at individual basis.
• While sending any message to other party, read and review it properly. It may not consists of confidential or personal information. (Harvard Business Review, 2012)

These are some essential steps need to be implemented for successful email policy. Every point describes that how email management can be done for maintaining security and privacy of data. Besides this, the way to write email should also be accurate and must not consists of angry tone, attacking words, gossipy lines and other offensive humor. Instead of this, most important thing that need to consider is that confidential information or any other important business information that can be leaked by business rivals or hackers should not be sent in emails. This is most appropriate way to prevent emails from vulnerable security and privacy attacks.

Enforcing a successful email policy

Through this report we have discussed that how email policy should be enforced and what should be included into it. Besides this, we have also emphasized on issues regarding privacy and security of data that is sent through emails. The mitigation of these issues is necessary that is why on the behalf of above information we provide following countermeasures:

Installation and Configuration of Firewall

Firewall is considered a best way to maintain security of networks and computers. This software is in-built in operating system and always in on mode. In on mode, firewall provides proper protection from network vulnerabilities and restricts unknown entities to enter into system through internet. The main purpose of firewall is to scan every entity that enters into system and it aware user about vulnerable entity by giving alert. Always keep firewall on, sometimes it is in off mode and does not work.

Use of Anti-Virus Software

Other way to get prevention from security issues such as virus attacks etc. is to use anti-virus. Malware, trojan and spyware etc. are common virus and harmful attacks and this can loss whole information from database. Various anti-virus available those can be used to resolve problem of viruses. The most popular anti-viruses are Kaspersky and NOD 32 and others. Virus attacks are implemented through emails by sending attachments those contain viruses. Some types of virus can replicate itself while these are copied to other folder such as recycler.

Implement Authorized Use Access

Another important way to protect computer or network from unauthorized users is management of authorized access through administrator. Administrator has rights to provide permissions to users for accessing database and username and password are assigned to authorized user. In this case, only authorized user can check emails and can reply for those emails. In this way, a restricted environment can be made for users to access and modify data.

Deployment of Network based Intrusion Detection

This countermeasure provides help to monitor network activities and actually based on intrusion detection system. Network intrusion attacks are controlled with help of this. Traffic patterns are monitored through this technique and this is an easy way to know about network vulnerabilities. NID or NIPS are commonly used detection systems and the main advantage of this system is that it works in real time environment. When through this system, any destructive activity is found then this system gives alarm for that.

Conclusion

After this whole discussion, we can say that for every kind of web application required proper security. Email policy consists of these security parameters and other recommended solutions will also be helpful for Web Solutions Company for maintaining security and privacy of data. After knowing about essential benefits of email policy, we will recommend to implement Web Solutions Pvt. Ltd. for implementation of this policy. But this policy should be followed by employees of company, otherwise security can be lost. Technical departments are highly responsible for any kind of security and privacy of network or system. They must follow code of ethics and standards. All employees are following security policy or not, it also comes under security of technical experts. The management should make security policies for organization. By implementing above discussed steps of email policy, successful outcomes can get.

References

Gfrlaw.com. (2005). Gordon Feinblatt LLC - Publication Search - Adoption of a Formal Email Policy. [online] Available at: https://www.gfrlaw.com/pubs/GordonPubDetail.aspx?xpST=PubDetail&pub=243 [Accessed 31 May 2016].

Policy Patrol. (2010). Ten things to include in your corporate email policy - Policy Patrol. [online] Available at: https://www.policypatrol.com/ten-things-to-include-in-your-corporate-email-policy/ [Accessed 31 May 2016].

Psychology Today. (2016). Too Many Emails? 7 Tips for Successful E-mail Management. [online] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/communication-success/201206/too-many-emails-7-tips-successful-e-mail-management [Accessed 31 May 2016].

Harvard Business Review. (2012). Stop Email Overload. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2012/02/stop-email-overload-1 [Accessed 31 May 2016].

Raphael, J. (2016). E-Mail Addiction: Five Signs You Need Help. [online] PCWorld. Available at: https://www.pcworld.com/article/150928/addiction.html [Accessed 31 May 2016].

Che.ncsu.edu. (2016). Why do you need email etiquette. [online] Available at: https://www.che.ncsu.edu/bullard/Professional_Development/Electronic%20etiquette.htm [Accessed 31 May 2016].