• silicon.com
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By silicon.com, 7 March 2003 15:59

COMMENT How damaging can an email be? This week one senior, well-respected partner at Scottish law firm Blackadders was reminded of the the medium's potential to cause mayhem - and, more seriously, its potential to smeer an individual's reputation. Thousands of accounts - the precise number isn't known - have been spammed with a message touting for business and bearing the partner's name. In this email, he apparently offers to "screw the opposition" (legally speaking), after boasting that he is a "ruthless bastard". The thing is, neither he nor his employer had anything to do with the unpleasant missive. The firm is now working with local police, who are in turn enlisting the help of ISPs and others to see if they can trace the offender. This is probably one case where the aggrieved party doesn't have to look too far for legal advice. However, speaking to silicon.com, the partner responsible for IT at the medium-sized firm made it clear that even if the culprit is found - which is no odds-on bet - there are various levels of damage to deal with. Perhaps most obviously there is the hit the firm's - and the individual's - reputation will have taken. Less obvious, at least for those organisations that have never been affected by such actions, online or offline, is the amount of time that is wasted dealing with the IT fallout. Blackadders has spent several days dealing with emails that have been sent back to its servers. It is trying to apologise to individuals - even though it is the victim - and, where necessary, explain what has happened. All this takes time. "It is imperative all those emails are responded to but that has all sorts of costs," said a representative of the firm. The net will be increasingly used to discredit others, however unjustly. As with any medium, some of the mud slung by the criminal or libellous will stick. The only consolation is that we can all use the same media to put matters straight.