Here is another example of why companies must take better care in protecting their communication infrastructure (see also my post on KP). An internal memo to all Apple employees sent earlier today announced shipping delays for both the much-anticipated iPhone and the Leopard OS. The bad news spread quickly to the Internet appearing on Engadget’s web site promptly sending Apple’s stock for a dip.

A few hours later Apple employees received another email:

“You may have received what appeared to be a Bullet*News from Apple. This communication is fake and did not come from Apple. Apple is on track to ship iPhone in late June and Mac OS X Leopard in October.”

The correction spread just as quickly as the fake story and the stock has recovered since. There is wild speculation of what really happened here:

“This couldn’t all be about checking for where Apple’s leaks are, could it? Or perhaps a criminal ploy to get a Apple stock at a discount?”

It is highly unlikely that Apple orchestrated this in an attempt to trace insider leaks. Instead, I am sure the IT department at Apple is scrambling to find out who high jacked their email system.

Either way, Apple could be open to liability claims due to the impact on the stock market, if the company is found to have acted in bad faith or grossly negligent.

Companies must realize that their messaging infrastructure is a powerful communication tool capable of reaching thousands and in some cases hundreds of thousands of employees. As such, corporate email and IM must be better protected from misuse. Most companies already lock down the send-to-all capabilities (I’m sure Apple does that as well), but the recently publicized cases at Apple and KP show that this is not enough. Stricter email policy enforcement can prevent these unsanctioned emails from ever being sent.

Technorati Tags: Apple fake email, email policy enforcement, email risk, email policy management, Apple

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