In fact, thats a good analogy for what happens when we send messages out from home or corporate computer systems.

I know this seems like one of those bad dreams, but picture yourself not as a technology executive but as Mr. or Ms. Average Computer User standing on the main drag of your home city and suddenly shedding your clothing (Ill give you a break, and well also say its sunny and 80 degrees outside). As you cavort sans vestments down the public thoroughfare, youll certainly draw some attention. People might stop and stare in amazement; maybe some would cast admiring glances; others might laugh uncontrollably. It seems fair to say, however, that unless exhibitionism is your thing, the experience would leave your face a bit red and perhaps other parts of your anatomy, as well. The content of e-mails, instant messages, or chat contributions can be embarrassing on that level, too.

Thats the lesson some highly placed executives from Marsh & McLennan Com-panies and some insurance companies have been learning as their e-mail is being used as evidence in the fraud and collusion investigation announced by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Yes, Internet privacy is a joke, but no one at the firms under investigation is laughing.

An online privacy watchdog site, www.privacyresources.org, puts the situation well: Who wants to know what youre saying? It might be a nosey co-worker, your employer, your ISP, a competitor, spouse, or legal team. Regardless of who wants to, it is remarkably easy for someone else to read what you write.

Its simply incredible supposedly educated, well-read individuals continue to believe, as one of my colleagues recently said to me, delete means destroy. E-mail can hang around on servers (both in-house and virtually anywhere on the Internet) for years. Even where it has been deleted from a hard drive or a drive has been wiped clean, e-mail can be recovered with the right technology. But you readers of this column already know these facts.

And Im certainly not the first one to trumpet this message. Thats what makes it all the more mind boggling these individuals would do things such as brazenly soliciting a contingent commission agreement from a carrier via e-mail.
What is in the minds of these individuals who not only parade around the cyber-universe naked but seem to do so unashamedly? Are we dealing with a subculture of technology dimwits? Actually, I dont think so.

In another column (Bad Boys in Cyberspace, May 2004) dealing with a survey that showed even top-level employees of some British carriers had accessed confidential data that was off-limits, New Jersey psychologist Ronald Westrate commented, They do it because they can. Theres a certain sense of omnipotence. Its a very arrogant gesture.

I think that kind of arrogance also is what is at work when shady deals are conducted via e-mail. I dont think the individuals who do such things believe for a second they will get caught or anyone even would take notice. Theyre consumed by a power trip that allows them to wield control over multimillion-dollar companies with the click of a mouse. Theyre playing God. What do they care if some mere mortal hears their discourse?

So, I take great delight in pointing out the dangers of trusting the privacy of e-mail because wrongdoers in our industry will be brought down, and their downfall will result from their arrogant ignorance of the technological facts of life.

In October, we saw the collapse of what Boston Red Sox owners termed the evil empire, when the swaggering New York Yankees went down to humiliating defeat at the hands of the Beantown bunch in the American League championship. With Spitzer promising many more fraud cases to come, perhaps we now can look forward to the toppling of the empire of arrogance in our own industry.

is technology editor for National Underwriters property/casualty and life/health editions. He may be reached at [email protected].