Schewanick Computer Services

When a customer emails you to ask a question, what's your first instinct? Probably not to pick up the phone, but rather to hit "reply." Shooting a quick email off with a pricing quote or sending an answer to a question is now the mainstream. Email has evolved into a the standard mass communications tool, a decade ago, just 15% of adults in the US went online, today, 63% of the population logs on to do a myriad of tasks from email to IM'ing, to booking trip reservations (1) Documents aren't only distributed within an organization, but also shared externally to the press, customers, business partners and prospects from the general public.

As a business entity, you and your employees probably do it every day. You or your department creates proposals and send them out to prospective clients. Ideally, each proposal is custom made for each individual client or prospect.

In the crunch of daily business life, we look for time-saving opportunities. Let's look at this scenario: To create a proposal for client C on deadline, you may cut corners and rather than making a document from scratch. To get the deliverable out to client C on schedule, you cut and paste from last week's client B package or edit the header and beginning body of client A's proposal since clients A and C are in the same industry.

Your firm e-mails new client package out to the potential client C. Client C accesses the proposal's metadata and sees that you gave your current client A, a competitor, a much more favorable bid, or sees previously deleted data provided to Client A. The result on this unintended meta data discovery is a loss of revenue from Clients A, B, and C.

The dilemma is that a small/medium business enterprise's digital assets may reach an audience for whom it was not meant for. Unintentional data sharing incidents unchecked are out of a small or medium business enterprise's control, meta data isn't.

The problem of meta data is even more compounded in industries like legal, medical and financial fields where monetary fines are attached for revealing private information. Case litigation costs can soar if certain client -lawyer information becomes public. Patient treatment outcomes could be affected if when medical records fall into non-clinician hands. An investor's successful portfolio could be revealed when analysis information like Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are accidentally distributed in a brokerage firm to non-pertinent personnel.

Meta data information is data which describes another set of data. It provides information about or documentation of other data managed within an application or environment.(2) Many software programs from Microsoft Office to Adobe CS's Version Cue and Adobe Bridge captures meta data information to track document use. Meta data describes how and when and by whom a particular set of information was collected, and how the information is formatted.

"Metadata is created in a variety of ways in Word documents. As a result, there is no single method to remove all such content from your documents."(3) Some of the meta data is benign, but in the proposal time-crunch scenario and compliance scenarios, meta data can financially cost.

Many businesses store their office collateral in Microsoft Word documents. "Some metadata is easily accessible through the Word user interface. Other metadata is only accessible through extraordinary means, such as by opening a document in a low-level binary file editor."(4) In Microsoft Word 2002, for example, the following is the type of meta data that's collected when a document begins its life:

Types of Meta Data in Word: Your name, Your initials , Your company or organization name, The name of your computer, The name of the network server or hard disk where you saved the document, Other file properties and summary information, Non-visible portions of embedded OLE objects, The names of previous document authors, Document revisions, Document versions, Template information, Hidden text, Comments

"The problem is not that metadata is added to documents. The problem is that it cannot be easily removed from documents.(5) " There is no question that both client and businesses are wired entities. The statistics show that the internet and email flood our very existence, so much so that 54% of young people ages 12 to 24 weaned online said they would rather give up TV than the internet.(6)

Immediate connectivity has brought personal space and distance closer in both the private and business realms. As users of the connected marketplace, we all run the risk of our digital assets becoming part of the uncontrolled mass. Control of your business enterprise's original intellectual property must be maintained remain a viable competitor. A business can function online, so long as it's done in a smart way.

By using digital rights management (DRM) software, a document's author can prohibit his content from being forwarded, printed, edited, or copied. Users can also control the lifecycle of their email and documents by setting access and expiration dates, which will allow or prohibit access to content at a given time and date.

Like encryption, DRM software can be difficult to use and is generally expensive ranging between $5,000 and upwards of $40,000. This pricing structure leaves the small/medium size business enterprises without the mode of protection which large enterprises invest in. Implementing digital asset management (DAM) technologies shouldn't be a costly or arduous task.

In keeping with your right to do business safely and securely, Essential Security Software feels you also should be able to do so affordably. Taceo™ user licensing is priced for a smaller number of users, ideal for the individual contractor or the smaller business office, offering the same document control and communication security.

The rights management provided by Essential Taceo gives people the power to share their work without relinquishing control, offering protection over their own intellectual property and the right to profit from it. Encrypting and controlling access to files can be a successful part of a company's compliance program and way for it to remain relevant against its competitors.

End Notes:

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1.) Lee Rainie, John Horrigan, Report: Internet Evolution, Chapter 4 "Internet: The Mainstreaming of Online Life." Pew Internet Rearch 25 January 2005. http://www.pewinternet.org/ 59.

2.) definition from Dictionary.com

3.) Michael Silver, "Microsoft Office metadata: What you don't see can hurt you," Tech Republic, 4 March 2003 http://techrepublic.com.com/

4.) Microsoft Support "How to Minimize Meta Data in Word 2002" http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290945

5.) Michael Silver, "Microsoft Office metadata: What you don't see can hurt you," Tech Republic.

6.) Terry Heaton, Donata Communications reprinted from Edison Media Research findings 26 March, 2004, http://donatacom.com/archives/00000314.htm 4 October, 2005.

About the author:

Marilee Veniegas is an alumni of the www.washington.edu" target="_blank">University of Washington she joined the Marketing team at Essential Security Software, Inc. in 2005.