Survey: Electronic monitoring OK, says IT security

You might have a problem with your company monitoring your office e-mails and instant messages, but chances are good that the guy (or gal) who handles your IT security doesn't agree. In fact, he or she probably thinks it's necessary to keep your personal information--credit card information, Social Security number, etc.--safe from internal threats.

A survey released Wednesday from enterprise security company Palisade Systems and led by Iowa State University professor Doug Jacobson, asked IT security professionals from 171 American-based corporations, universities and government agencies what they thought about keeping employees' sensitive data safe from internal threats. The results showed that almost 100 percent of corporate respondents believe they need to monitor electronic communications like e-mail, IMs, peer-to-peer data transfers, and file transfer protocol (FTP) in order to make sure no potentially volatile information is being nabbed and misused.

Considering all the headlines these days about internal leaks, it's not too surprising.

But when IT security professionals at universities and government agencies were asked the same question, their answers were vastly different. Only 31 percent of university-employed respondents thought it was necessary to monitor electronic communications, and an even smaller 11 percent of those at government agencies did.