Companies look to stop leaks to bloggers

Companies are grappling with growing disclosure of sensitive or confidential information by employees who are either posting information online or leaking it to bloggers. A recent survey conducted by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, a consulting firm, found that 14 percent of the 586 U.S. employees surveyed admitted they had sent confidential or potentially embarrassing company emails to outsiders.

Yahoo and several big law firms have had news of pending layoffs or internal memos detailing cost cuts leaked to bloggers and posted on Internet news sites.

One company has decided to act. Allen Brewer, chief information officer of the Flushing Savings Bank unit of Flushing Financial Corp, said his firm is installing software that prevents employees from sending email to specified addresses and scans email attachments for sensitive information.

Security firms say sales are up for web monitoring and email protection software that looks inside email for sensitive or confidential information, blocks the message and then alerts managers.

For more on this growing threat:
- See this Wall Street Journal article

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