[the following snippet is from a recent article in Electronic 


Messaging News, Volume 10, Number 2, January 21, 1998]








SHHH, E-MAIL SURVEILLANCE UNDER WAY





 
Corporate E-mail is sending tremors throughout the business 


sector as employees scream for privacy rights and employers shield 


themselves  from liability lawsuits. 


   
Companies also worry that proprietary information could leak 


out at  thebclick of one key. 


   
New York-based American Management Association found that 


14.9  percent of 31,906 surveyed organizations store and review 


electronic  messages. 


   
Arlington, Va.-based American Society for Industrial Security  


estimates that intellectual property theft costs corporate America 


$24  billion annually.  Approximately 74 percent of those security 


breaches  happen on the inside.


 


   
Still A Resistant Market 





   
But E-mail packages that aid administrators with E-mail  


surveillance are being received with mixed emotions.  On the one 


hand,  employees feel their privacy is being invaded , prompting 


them to coin  the products "censorware." 


   
On the other hand, proponents of the technology feel 


surveillance products make E-mail systems secure for employees 


and employers alike, weeding out inappropriate language and 


content that may be threatening  to an enterprise. 


   
"In many instances, the joke is being circulated by a supervisor -


 if [the enterprise] is using software - the message is caught before it is 


ever delivered," says Michael Overly, an attorney with Los  Angeles-


based Foley and Lardner, a law firm.  "If done well, it takes  


the employee out of the loop, and no one has to step out and complain  


about a joke while everyone else is chortling about it in the halls.  


 are starting to see the value in that - it's not just an  issue of 


employee privacy. They benefit from these systems." 














Such scenarios paint a believeable vision of the dark future in which the


government has reduced its size.  Instead, huge, powerful megacorps battle for


power, using any means possible to get ahead of their competitors.  Like in


Snowcrash, the Mafia could be involved in a very public way.  For


example, the Russian Mafia, which openly


perpetrates crime.  You probably won't be able to read the page, but the


Russian Mafia has a webpage.  I'm not sure or not if this is completely real, a


spoof, or what, but the site is located in Russia!  It was also discovered it


on a viable links page, so it's up to you to determine its validity.  Click here.






The power of information.  It seems that the U.S. is a bit naive when it comes


to industrial espionage.  Other countries, such as Japan and France, are used


to it.
"In Japan the underlying philosophy is, why spend 10 years and


$1 billion on research and development when you can bribe a competitor's


engineer for $1 million and get the same, if not better, results. In France,


the philosophy is that while France and the US may be military allies, we're


economic competitors. Meanwhile, South Korea recently intensified efforts to


collect information from foreign companies for South Korean corporations - a


fact discussed openly on South Korean television."



The future?  An increased interest in intercepting data transmissions:


cellular, fax, video.  Nowadays it's a tedious process - far more complicated


than the cliche of cutting into a wire and "hooking a monitor up to it."  An


increased use in censorship software in corporations - a program that looks for


keywords and acts accordingly.  An increased paranoia within corporations. 


Information is power, after all.