In the wake of the recent story about Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! email account being hacked, there has been a heated debate about the use of private e-mail accounts by public officials.
It appears that Sarah Palin used her Yahoo! e-mail account for more than just sending photos of her children to friends and family. She also sometimes used the web-based e-mail program to conduct state business in her high-profile position as governor of Alaska. As the story has unfolded, it has become clear that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to hack into these types of e-mail accounts (with the help of an Athens-based anonymity service). Critics think Palin should have conducted state business only on more secure, government-based email services.
But with the widespread use of the BlackBerry and other PDA devices, as well as laptop computers, most of us are guilty of checking company e-mail accounts while in public places, where someone could easily peek over our shoulder and view confidential information.
Do you think there should be more restrictions on how employees view confidential information on their portable devices in public? Have you ever used personal e-mail accounts to conduct professional business?