Re: Screening Outgoing Mail for Content

[Bennett Todd <bet () mordor net>]

1998-08-11-14:36:00 Dean Ethier:
> Put controls on email, and users will just start using other services (ftp,
> http, irc, etc) to move thier little bundles of electrons.  Sounds to me
> like you would be fast creating yourself a proverbial leaky dike.  Plug one
> hole, and the water comes pouring out another.  Short of pulling the plug,
> how do you hope to control this??

Depends on your goals. If you want to erect a uniformly strong barrier, then
don't bother trying to track email if you aren't doing comparable checking and
tracking on every other service. This implies, among other things, that there
are no outbound end-to-end encrypted services.

On the other hand, many people are happy doing easy scanning for easy targets,
and don't feel bad if they only catch the ignorant or careless perps, letting
the clever ones easily avoid notice.

-Bennett