The Sarbanes-Oxley Act Has Forced Many Companies To Review Email Retention Policies.
The act was formulated to strengthen accounting oversight and corporate accountability. It did this by increasing accounting and auditor regulations, enhancing disclosure requirements, creating new federal laws and increasing penalties under existing federal laws.
An important aspect of the act focuses on the details of data security, retention and protection. So the question is, how does the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation impact email retention policies?
Surveys indicate that 93 percent of all business documents are created electronically and that has forced most corporations to address their retention policies. Businesses, small or large, can no longer consider email retention a non-priority.
Companies must develop a classification of data for off-site storage, such as an online storage service that encrypts and protect the data.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act includes three provisions that deal with electronic documents, such as those communicated through emails. They include document alteration or destruction, mandatory document retention and obstruction of justice.
In terms of document alteration or destruction, the Sarbanes-Oxley law states that people who knowingly alter, destroy, mutilate, falsify or conceal any document (electronic or paper) with the intent to impede proceedings involving federal agencies may be fined or imprisoned up to 20 years, or both. How does this impact email retention policies? If a company has an email retention policy in place, it must include a security plan. Only certain individuals should be given clearance to access the archived emails. A report with that person's name and purpose should be produced every time a certain email is accessed, and documentation of change to the existing document should be noted.The Sarbanes-Oxley provision of mandatory document retention forces businesses to keep records readily for review for a period of up to five years. The penalty for knowingly and willfully violating this provision imposes fines and a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, or both. How does this impact email retention policies? A business must generate a data-retention policy with archive history periods included. According to Sarbanes-Oxley, the time period for such retention should be at least five years. The emails should be classified by dates (months and years) to make it less complicated for auditors to access such information. If the emails are disorganized, the auditors may have to dig deeper and they might find improprieties. The obstruction of justice segment is similar to the document alteration provision under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but it includes a statute that prohibits tampering with witnesses. The legislation states that acting or attempting to alter or destroy a record or other object "with the intent to impair the object's integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding" can be punishable with fines, imprisonment for up to 20 years, or both. How does this impact email retention policies? Again, any company that has a data retention policy must enforce a security plan such that data can be accessed by only the proper personnel. An online data backup service with strong encryption and user tracking helps eliminate the chance of human intervention with whatever email data has been stored. With certain managed backup services, online backups are performed automatically, so data is protected without manual intervention. Data moves through an existing network connection, using state-of-the-art data security including AES encryption to a secure remote data center.Clearly, the document-retention regulations implemented by the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation sends a signal to businesses that they must institute a policy regarding their data and documents, including those transmitted through email. Businesses must realize that they can be held liable for retained and deleted electronic documents. The policies these businesses put in place should include an inventory of all the electronic hardware and software that can store emails (including cell phones and laptops), all locations and storage formats of archived emails, and all the methods that email documents can be transferred into and out of the company. The next step should include classification of such emails, and then a secure off-site online backup storage plan.
The days of simply keeping emails in a folder at each workstation are part of the past thanks to businesses that have put forth a solid data retention plan. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has served as an effective means to help push the creation of such plans.
Related Tags: policy, sarbanes-oxley, sox, data retention, email retention, policies, remote backup
Mike Colesante is a writer at Terian Solutions and can be reached at 713-482-6900.
Terian Solutions offers a full range of managed backup services. Secure Backup its disk to disk backup and restore system, automatically protects your data and vaults it offsite. Assuring your valuable data is always safe and secure. For more information about Terian Solutions' Secure Backup remote data protection service call 713-482-3600 or visit http://www.terian.com Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles
Recent articles in this category:
- How To Properly Back Up The Data In Your Computer
When you have data on your computer, you most likely have it all saved so that you can keep it long - Mac Hard Drive Data Recovery After Dd Command Fails To Copy Your Data
Though the advance computer systems, such as Mac, UNIX etc are robust in their design and storage st - Olympus µ Tough-6020: Sd Card Corruption And Digital Camera Recovery
The Olympus µ TOUGH-6020 is a rugged and stylish camera which is bound to awe photo enthusiasts. It - Importance Of Spytool For Parents
Computer and Internet have become a basic part of education system in schools, colleges, and institu - Bkf Recovery In Server 2003 After Deletion Of Archive Bit Information
It is imperative for a Microsoft Windows user to backup his/her file. Backup files turn out to be ha - How To Prevent Windows Data Loss
Did you just face crashing of your Microsoft Windows 7 operating system? And are all your files trap - Defragmentation In Windows May Lead To Data Loss
I have always relied on a Windows operating system. And like me, there are many other people who com - Using Mysql Recovery Utility To Repair Damaged Myisam 5.0.4 Table
The MyISAM table in the MySQL database is the default type of database engine. This table stores the - What Types Of Digital Media Allow For Data Recovery?
There are a number of reasons that an individual or company may need to turn to a data recovery comp - Saving Your Computer From Ransomware Viruses
As the world becomes more and more connected, computer viruses are as rampant and as destructive as
Most viewed articles in this category:
- Instant Rollback to the Past With Rollback Rx
With impacting system performance and speed, Rollback Rx is the only system restore software and dis - Troubleshoot Via Remote Control With Rollback Rx
Rollback Rx lets you carry out your pc maintenance and fix computer problems both remotely and local - The 5 Most Common Reasons Why People Believe They Won't Need Data Recovery
Most people don't realize how important their data is until it is lost. Hard drive data recovery is - Reasons For Data Loss From Computer Hard Disks
IntroductionThe last 20 years has brought about a proliferation of computer use in society. Technol - How to Backup Mails and Address Book of Outlook Express
What happens when you login to your computer system and find that you cannot access your mails on Ou - Electronic Discovery 2.0
Electronic Discovery, or "e-discovery" refers to the discovery of data from electronic storage and o - Managing Backup And Recovery Services
Iceland Seafood International (ISI) has numerous offices located in ten countries and sells seafood - Choosing The Best File Recovery Solution
All file recovery solutions are not created equally. But, choosing one specific software or service - Corrupt Word File Recovery
There are as many ways to recover the lost data as there are the reasons to lose it. If there are 10 - The Prescription For Your PC's Health - RollBack Rx
Where there is data, there is a threat to its security. More so for very large organizations that ne