An independent survey commissioned by email management company Mimecast has revealed that 94% of companies are powerless to stop confidential information from leaving their organisation by email. The survey revealed that just 6% of all respondents were confident that anyone attempting to send confidential company information by email out of the organisation would be prevented from doing so.

According to Dr James Blake, security expert at Mimecast, "The picture revealed by this survey points to fundamental security issues with protecting not only a company's own data but also customer data like patient records or credit card numbers." He adds, "With the blurring of boundaries between company employees and external consultants, contractors, outsourcers and other third parties, it is now much more difficult to ensure the appropriate flow of information outside the organisation. Especially since the majority of employees are now knowledge workers with access to significant amounts of confidential data."