Subscribe to Windows IT Pro

 

Get Newsletters

  • Get the Latest News
  • Product Updates
  • Helpful Tricks
  • Productivity Tips

Subscribe Now!

April 07, 2005 12:00 AM

Are Free Mail Accounts a Security Risk for Your Business?

Windows IT Pro
InstantDoc ID #45992
Rating: (1)
Yahoo recently increased user storage space for mail accounts to 1GB. Google reciprocated by increasing their Gmail offering to 2GB. Did you know you can map Gmail storage space as a disk drive in Windows?

The GMail Drive freeware program, developed by 
Bjarke Viksoe, allows you to do exactly that. At first glance it seems like a slick idea, but is it smart to use it? Probably only if you use it for storing information that is safe for other people to see (technically "all your data are belong to Google") and only in cases where you can afford to lose that data if Google should decide to delete your accounts. With that in mind the GMail Drive tool seems rather useless.

It seems to me that people who need a legitimate way of making their data available wherever they are could more easily buy a laptop. Even a decent used laptop can be obtained for a few hundred dollars these days. Then again, some people want all the bells and whistles they can get regardless of whether those bells and whistles make any real sense.

From an information security perspective the tool certainly presents a security risk. So do free mail accounts.

The idea of free mail accounts is attractive and could possibly serve a useful business purpose. But again, companies need to keep in mind that storing mail on other companies mail servers (Yahoo, Google, Hotmail, etc.) could lead to information leaks or data loss beyond your control. Even so, I've seen employees of companies using free mail accounts for business reasons.

How does your company address the use of free mail accounts? Do you have a policy in place that prohibits such use for company-related activity? Do you provide your own Web-based email sevice for your mobile users? Do you block traffic to free mail sites? Or have you found that free mail services offer a benefit to your business?

Related Content:

ARTICLE TOOLS

Comments
  • Anonymous User
    7 years ago
    Jun 27, 2005

    This is a rediculous article to suggest that the user buy a laptop to have the data available everywhere. The idea of online storage is to have your data quick and accessible when you're working on another pc or such. Maybe suggest a usb flashdrive as an alternative before suggesting a buying a laptop for "a few hundred dollars" as a better idea...moron.

You must log on before posting a comment.

Are you a new visitor? Register Here

advertisement

advertisement

White Papers

Get your Windows 7 deployment off to the right start by implementing PC lockdown. A locked-down environment is easier and cheaper to support since users are less likely to make unnecessary changes to the core system configuration - read more here!

Essential Guides

Is your iSCSI "lossy"? The reality is that most off-the-shelf Ethernet hardware deployed for iSCSI can lose packets, resulting in slow performance or application downtime. Learn how to assess your current iSCSI infrastructure and engineer an advanced iSCSI SAN infrastructure.

Web Seminars

What's the best way to keep your network safe from malware? In this web seminar, security expert Greg Shields suggests an alternative method to the traditional blacklisting approach that is common with anti-virus and anti-malware solutions.

eLearning Series

We bring the experts direct to you to share their real-world perspective and expertise. During each event, three sessions stream in real time, so you can learn, ask questions, and get solutions.
Upcoming event: Getting the Most with Exchange 2010 with Paul Robichaux

Subscribe to Windows IT Pro!

Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies. Windows IT Pro is used by Penton Media Inc. under license from owner.