Record management is becoming a costly legal and technology minefield that is further complicated by e-mail and instant messaging (IM) technologies along with increasing business use of other forms of messaging such as mobile SMS and even IP voice, according to a new report from the Information Security Forum. In particular, a survey of ISF members suggests that the decision whether to retain e-mail and IM as business records is far from clear.
"There are an increasing number of laws and regulations, including money laundering, that require organisations to manage and retain business records, but the law doesn't necessarily view email and IM as simply casual and unofficial communication - they can sometimes form business records," says Andy Jones, senior research consultant at the ISF. "On the other hand, data privacy laws may prevent the retention of records that are intended to be private."
