Employees fired for e-mail abuse

Nearly half of all UK companies have fired workers in the past year because of e-mail abuses.

And over half of UK firms regularly audit employees' e-mail to ensure they are complying with company rules on trade secrets, compliance and other areas, a survey has found.

The research, carried out by analyst Forrester on behalf of e-mail security firm Proofpoint, found 44% of UK companies had fired employees in the past year for violating e-mail policies.

78% of those companies had disciplined workers for the same offence.

The survey also found 53% of UK companies surveyed regularly audited outbound e-mail content, while 47% had investigated a data leak in the last year.

The survey polled 425 firms in the UK, France, Germany, the US and Australia.

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