LONDON - 11 million. That is the number of emails that detectives investigating the News of the World scandal will have to sift through to get the answers they are looking for. Previously, now stated its archiving email system could only stretch back six months, but these newly recovered email communications stretch back over a period of many years.

Now we understand the importance of an archive email software more than ever. Companies need to evaluate their email compliance solutions to ensure they are safeguarded from any suspicious activity their employees may be involved in. "The biggest problem with the News of the World scandal is that while they were using an email archiving software, it was completely ineffective," said Robin Bingeman of email compliance and archiving solution Cryoserver. "Previously sent and received emails could be deleted, manipulated and for all intents and purposes, lost. This is not software that you should trust when your company's reputation is on the line."

The email archiving solution used by the News International, Now's parent company, was not a hosted email or managed archiving service; it did not store or hold onto its customers' data. They simply helped their clients migrate email and message databases from one location to another.

"Companies need to do their research or this could very well happen to them," said Bingeman. "Arbitrary or selective deletion by users undermines an email archive's forensic record. If a company needs to locate an email in the Cryoserver repository it is done with a search engine that has the ability to locate emails in seconds, not hours."

Signs of Trouble

• The archive email software was database driven, which leaves the end user with the ability to delete and alter records easily.
• Emails had to be sent off for storage and were not automatically stored.
• Email retrieval using this software is difficult and slow.
• The company could select which emails to save; therefore if one computer was destroyed all the emails not backed up were lost.

What to Expect From Our Email Compliance Solution

• Automatically stores every email into, out of or within an organization and secures them in a tamper-evident repository.
• Emails are displayed in a read only format, meaning an email can never be deleted or altered once it is in the repository.
• All-inclusive: whether a result of malicious intent, routine housekeeping or system failure vital emails can go missing. We help our clients recover the emails without the "might exist" attitude. It's only a matter of seconds before the emails are located and there is no additional fee for this service.
• Only authorized users have the ability to look across all emails in the archive and other electronic documents, where as the end user can only look at emails they sent or received. This is often necessary when companies need to review emails surrounding a business transaction or to investigate an HR issue.
• All emails in the repository can be proven without a reasonable doubt that the archive directly reflects all emails that have been sent or received.

Email archiving software is available as an email appliance, email software or cloud-based solution. With either option, had the News of the World been using Cryoserver, the investigators would not been spending hours upon hours sifting through the emails. They would be able to locate any and all emails in question within seconds.

© 2011 Master Google and Cryoserver. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Master Google, a for-hire SEO firm, is credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this document is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.