E-Mail Blues
You are the information technology manager for a high-tech company that uses an E-Mail (electronic mail) system. The E-Mail system is used to communicate both internally with other employees and externally with suppliers and customers. Some employees even use the system to send personal communications to friends and relatives with home computers. The system has been very successful and credited with helping to boost revenues and lower costs in the two years it has been in use. Some issues associated with the E-Mail system have recently come to your attention and you have been asked to deal with each.
(1) The head of the management information systems (MIS) department would like to start monitoring the E-Mail transmissions. She asks if she can do it and are there any limits or concerns that need to be addressed.
(2) One of the company's engineers has complained that someone is anonymously sending E-Mail messages claiming that the engineer is a "terrible engineer and is so bad that he is dangerous." He comes to you and asks for you "to do something about this."
(3) An information broker offers your company a substantial sum of money for the E-Mail traffic records for the last two years. The records contain the names and E-Mail addresses of all senders and receivers of E-Mail messages as well as the date and length of each message. The broker adds that she would pay even more if the actual messages were also included in the deal.