A recent survey of 332 technology decision-makers at large u.s. companies reveals a growing concern over sensitive information leaving the enterprise through email.

In its 2005 study on outbound email security and content issues, email security vendor Proofpoint found that more than 63% of corporations with 1,000 or more employees either employ or plan to hire workers to read outbound email.
Why? companies are highly concerned about preventing leaks of trade secrets, enforcing corporate email policies, and complying with regulations that affect email usage.

Keith Crosley is director of market development for Proofpoint:
“Survey respondents estimated that almost 25% of outbound email contains content that poses a legal, financial or regulatory risk. We also found that 27% of companies have terminated an employee due to email misuse in the past year alone.”

Source: Download proofpoint report on outbound email

Microsoft made available this week Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) patching tool and Microsoft Update software patching service, which the company had originally planned to ship in the first half of 2004.

Shipping in mid-July will be two other software update tools currently in beta: Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.0 and Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft.

Microsoft Update, the successor to the existing Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services offers patches for Windows operating systems as well as Office XP, Office 2003, SQL Server, Microsoft Desktop Engine, Exchange 2000 Server, and Exchange Server 2003 products.

Source: PCWorld

Microsoft’s RFID Infrastructure Taps the Power of the .NET Framework, SQL Server and Visual Studio .NET to Make Integration and Deployment of RFID Easier and Less Costly.

Today at Microsoft(R) TechEd 2005, Senior Vice President of Server Applications Paul Flessner announced a new strategy to develop a scalable radio frequency identification (RFID) technology infrastructure, enabling customers and partners to easily integrate business processes using RFID data. Flessner’s TechEd keynote demonstration was built on an early version of this technology.

Businesses around the world are evaluating how RFID technologies can enable them to streamline business processes and provide real-time visibility into their supply chain. However, adoption of RFID is hindered by many factors, including complexity of device management, lack of standards, limited solutions to cleanse volumes of data, and costly integration with existing business applications. Microsoft Corp.’s RFID infrastructure is intended to address these pain points and stimulate faster adoption of RFID.

Built on top of the .NET Framework, Microsoft’s RFID technology can be embedded within third-party applications or used on its own to capture and interpret data from sensors and manage business events in an easy-to-deploy, user-friendly environment. Companies may use RFID technology to enhance business processes, saving them time and money and improving their visibility into key business performance metrics.

Source: Microsoft

The retail finance division of Citigroup has admitted that a backup tape containing personal information on almost 4 million customers has gone missing. The United Parcel Service lost the tape on May 2nd, and it hasn’t been seen since. CitiFinancial only noticed the tape was missing on May 20. The tape contains Social Security numbers and transaction histories on both open and closed accounts at the bank’s lending branches.

The company admitted that it doesn’t use encryption on its electronic transmissions, nor explained why it took so long to notify the public.

Customers are advised to call 866-452-2484

Source: The Register

Microsoft took part of its MSN Web site offline over the weekend, after it learned of a flaw that could let an attacker gain access to Hotmail accounts, the company said.

The MSN Web site, http://ilovemessenger.msn.com/, contained a so-called cross-site scripting flaw, a Microsoft representative said on Monday. In its initial review of the issue, the company found that an attacker could use the vulnerability to obtain “cookies” from Hotmail users by getting them to click on a malicious URL. That could then grant access to those e-mail accounts, the representative said.

Microsoft’s acknowledgement of the Hotmail issue comes after the security hole was disclosed on Saturday by Alex de Vries, a Dutch programmer, on the Net-Force Web site for security enthusiasts.

Source: News.com