Anthrax prompts shift in Feds' e-mail policy

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By Jennifer DiSabatino

(IDG) -- Despite a plague of anthrax in the U.S. postal system and a shift in favor of e-mail in government communications policies, many companies don't plan to mandate the use of e-mail over paper mail in order to mitigate terrorist attacks through the post office.

William Keslar, a spokesman for USX Corp. in Pittsburgh, said his company has no plans to move to e-mail.

"But if we did, our IT people told us that we have the capacity and storage space to handle a 30 percent increase," he said.

However, companies doing business with the government are preparing for a policy shift.

"We have seen a tremendous increase in terms of the interest we are getting here," said Krish Krishnan, CEO of NetCompliance Inc. in Washington. NetCompliance manufactures software to help companies comply with governmental guidelines on filing documents electronically.

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An advisory from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) dated Oct. 19 stated, "Mail delivery was temporarily halted in the DOT headquarters building, including deliveries for the filing of documents in DOT dockets... Those persons making filings in DOT dockets are encouraged to file electronically by using the DOT DMS Web site."

Companies may even have to set aside e-mail policies that limit or prohibit attachments.

"Companies are trying to comply with the government requirements as quickly and efficiently as they can," Krishnan said, "and if that means they don't adhere to their in-house policy, so be it."

An increase in electronic communications between private companies and the government may lead to security problems, said Satish Ramachandran, CEO and president of Mirapoint Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif.

As companies bolster their infrastructure to handle the increased load of e-mail and attachments, "they leave the doors open for hacker and virus attackers," he said.

One company that had temporarily banned hard-copy mail will begin accepting it again. Jane Amari, editor and publisher of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, said the newspaper had refused to accept letters to the editor via surface mail for the past two weeks, telling readers to use e-mail or send faxes instead.

"We did it until we got the gear, masks and rubber gloves, to open the mail," she said. "We should be accepting regular mail again this week. But 80 percent of our letters to the editor already come via e-mail."