Networking: Content filtering grows

CHICAGO, April 24 (UPI) -- A gullible young employee sends out a confidential document -- over the Internet -- that should have been sent only by overnight courier. A spy, hired by a rival firm, snags the file, with a packet-sniffing device, as it transitions from the corporate network to the Internet. Trade secrets are divulged, and the company is ruined. Experts tell United Press International's Networking column that corporations, both large and small, are seeking to stop "information leaks," like that, with outbound content filtering software.

"When critical data escapes, either intentionally, or accidentally, organizations face financial, legal and reputational costs," a spokesman for Fidelis Security Systems, based in Bethesda, Md., told Networking. "As a consequence, the outbound content filtering market is experiencing exponential growth." By Gene Koprowski