Scare tactics driving email spend

IT directors struggling to shake a colossal email-related headache have taken to the scare tactics of worse case scenario to claw money from the tight grip of the finance department.

Email is the biggest security headache for 50 per cent of IT directors, according to figures from security vendor IronPort Systems. The figures also reveal that 40 per cent of IT directors have used models of lost productivity and revenue to justify increased budgets while a quarter said they have employed 'scare tactics' to the same end.

Matt Peachey, Northern European managing director at IronPort Systems, said: "Just like any bad headache, we will do anything to make it go away. It is no surprise that IT directors will resort to any means necessary to get the investment they need to get email under control, such is the scale of the problem facing them."

Of course such tactics are not necessarily anything new - the Y2K bonanza of the late 1990s saw millions of pounds of budget signed off against potentially abstract concerns.

Among the tactics previously identified for justifying security spend have been an over-reliance on unfounded fears of 'cyberterrorism' - leaving terrorism branded as a 'less credible Y2K' in some quarters.

But that's not to say email isn't an almost impossible resource to manage or that the means don't justify the ends.

Peachey added: "Email is the most visible IT issue in the majority of today's organisations. As a result IT directors are under enormous pressure to guarantee its performance."

Peachey cited examples of some companies even appointing a Chief Email Officer to manage the tool across the organisation.

And there is certainly enough work to keep the new 'CEO' busy.

According to security giant Symantec, 67 per cent of global email is now spam, a large percentage of which now comes from compromised 'zombie' machines. IronPort's figures support this, showing an average of 18 billion emails are sent each day.

During 2004 the amount of email sent by these zombies went from 30 per cent of all spam to around 70 per cent, according to IronPort.