A Billion-dollar Email 'Whoops!'

The day was probably same as any other day for a Philadelphia lawyer who was working on a settlement case between big pharmaceutical player Eli Lilly and the U.S. Government. Eli Lilly was in talks with the federal government over marketing improprieties related to their bipolar drug, Zyprexa. The lawyer, going about his daily business accidentally addressed an email related to the secret negotiations to a New York Times reporter, rather than his fellow colleague. That’s when the previously-secret billion-dollar negotiations with the government turned into front-page national news. And I’m sure the lawyer is banging his head on a table now.

When I see stories like this, it inspires me to give my itchy mouse finger a little more foresight during day-to-day business. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. Some firms may benefit from a viable outbound email security software solution. Google Enterprise has a version. Some of these programs will block all internal email with certain keywords or recipients from ever making it outside of the corporate walls.

Email Security image by Sammy8146 [cc,2.0]