The ordinary, ubiquitous e-mail messageone of millions sent every dayturns out to be camouflaging a major business risk. In fact, one risk manager thinks the problem has been building for so long that the cure may be a harder sell than the cost of dealing with the problem.

John Kerr is manager of accounting and administration for the Canadian Universities Reciprocal Insurance Exchange as well as being a member of the technology committee of the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS). Kerr said the avalanche of e-mail messages being sent and received by businesses across the globe is creating far too many opportunities for unauthorized visitors to gain access to those messages. Once they get hold of them, those visitors can either share the messages or broadcast them to a larger audience.

I think one of the biggest challenges we face is that most people treat their e-mail correspondence far too casually, Kerr said. They dont give it the record keeping that it deserves.