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Searching Enron: Smut Or Just Business?
If you're company is one you think may end up being investigated by the federal government, here's a tip: Delete anything that might upset your mother. Enron employees are facing further embarrassment after the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission released the company's cache of some half-million employee emails, now easily searchable online to professional and amateur muckrakers.
Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay and CEO Jeff Skilling did more than cheat lower-level employees out of their pensions. Those same employees, though not guilty of prosecutable crimes, can be scrutinized by any interested party for their tales of one-night stands, pornographic emails, animosity toward other employees, recipes, driving directions, Christmas wish lists, or cell phone contact lists. Email addresses are included, so it's not so difficult to figure out who's saying what.
At EnronEmail.com, visitors can find all the juicy information on Enron employees they desire, keyword or categorically searchable through InBoxer's AntiRisk search appliance. Access to the database even comes with a raunchy 18-and-over to access warning and the site's Dashboard neatly divides emails into "Potential Risks" categories like Marked Confidential, Objectionable Use, and Personal Use.
"I can't believe some of the things Enron employees put in their email messages. Who would ever write about their 'one night stands' or the habits of their bosses?" said Roger Matus, InBoxer's chief executive. "I tried to find the most outrageous email, but couldn't pick one."
The site seems a thinly veiled justification for an email security product using the Enron database as an example. The company's press release makes no mention of the security product, but advertises tips about how to find information about:
-- Business practices. (Look for Tom Delay and fund raising.)
-- Insights into executive life. (Look for Linda Lay about Biochemical Research.)
-- Some really good jokes. (Look for the one about giving a cat a pill.)
-- Truly offensive content. (Search the Objectionable Use column.)
In Jerry-Springer-laugh-at-their-pain style, the company is also holding three contests entitled "I'd fire him (or her)," Enron's funniest jokes," and "What were they thinking." Winners get a free iPod Shuffle.
Electronic discovery software company MetaLINCS is also offering a search of Enron emails with an online downloadable application. MetaLincs makes a plea to attorneys and other professionals who may have to sift through and analyze voluminous amounts of data, and uses the Enron database as a demonstration of their product.
The press release language from MetaLincs is a bit better masked with professional language, offering users the ability to "discover and understand relationships between the scandal's different players," understand conversations and email trails in context by analyzing entire threads," "suggesting additional key words and phrases and automatically discovering relevant terminology used in documents and messages."
So, essentially, it's the same service offered by InBoxer, just more eloquently presented in corporate speak.
At least on the reality shows, the subjects sign up to be humiliated.
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About the Author:
Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
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Jason Lee Miller
