HERE ARE 8 THINGS TO TO DO REDUCE YOUR EMAIL RISK

Cheryl Conner ,  

Contributor

I write about small businesses doing innovative PR

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

This is a question I’ve been mulling for a number of months: How has email use evolved in the days since Sony's email server hacks and Wikileaks?
As most will remember, Sony’s email system was breached in October 2014 by hackers hired by North Korea, to protest the release of The Interview. Thousands of emails emerged including salary records, negotiations and enough salacious material to fill the tabloids for seasons. On paper, Sony pegged the damage at $15 million. The emotional toll to employees, some who left the company and others who’ve filed civil suits has dragged on for years.

An email crisis can strike any organization.

The March 2016 leak of some 30,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee revealing information about DNC's off-the-record conversations with the press during Hilary's campaign, coupled with controversy about her use of a private email server while Secretary of State and reticence to produce the entirety of those emails was another set of history-changing occurrences
READ MORE>>>>. (CNN's outline of that situation is here). In my opinion, the greatest damage to Clinton was not the question of whether she’d behaved illegally (CNN's report maintains she didn't), but the hit to her reputation from the materials the emails contained.
What are the lessons in these disasters for entrepreneurs? The ramifications should be clear to employees who’ve lost jobs or ruined careers over foolish email behavior. But for founders, the risk of lost contracts, ruined reputations and lawsuits over confidentiality breaches should be sobering enough to stand your neck hairs on end.
Consider the example of John White, founder of Social Marketing Solutions. Prior to his current company, he’d led the account team for a high-profile client with a reputation for being difficult. His life (and his employer’s) was turned on end when a customer support rep on his team emailed the following missive: "The wicked witch of the west is back on her broomstick. Which one of you wants to respond?" She had failed to notice the client was copied.
The employee was terminated on the spot and the company sent a formal letter of apology to the customer. But the client relationship, already close to the fence, could not be saved. The customer declined to renew, moving $2M in business to a competing agency at their next available chance.
In another case, the GM of a global company (one of our clients) shared the story of his prior start-up preparing for a high-impact launch. A vice president of the firm’s PR agency, feeling his oats and on a bit of a power trip, leaked the news early to one of his pals in the press. His email trail told the tale. Liability insurance was not enough to save that agency’s future. Legal action quickly shut the company down. SOURCE: FORBE

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