According to an article written by Paul Chen for the Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Journal, the answer is absolutely. Chen discusses how "with regulations like SOX in place, organizations must take special precautions to ensure their employees do not send and receive damaging emails via their workplace account." However, citing a recent survey on corporate email usage conducted by Harris Interactive, Chen says that "nearly half the people polled say they have sent or received jokes, comical pictures/videos, and stories of a questionable tone, while one in five say they have sent or received a password or log-in information via email." Amazingly, Chen says that the survey also found that "92% of these employees do not have believe that they have ever sent a risky email, which demonstrates that there is a substantial discrepancy between perceived and actual risks posed by email exchange."
The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) act, as described by Chen, requires all public companies to retain their business records, including email, for at least five years. Since Sarbanes-Oxley does NOT specify which documents are relevant and which are not, it makes the practice of email retention significant for all public companies.
See full Article.
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