I wonder if Coega has qualified people working on their computers in the offices. And by qualified people I mean a secretary or assistant that at least knows how to use an email program. I received a puzzling email from Nelitha Tayi (Nelitha.Tayi@coega.co.za) asking me to provide a quotation on their ICT needs. The puzzling part was the attachment.
Once opened I had a list of 41 IT companies in Port Elizabeth, obviously from the Coega database. This contained information like the normal contact information. The worst part is 2 very confidential information parts they give out. The Average Turnover of each company as well as the Biggest Contracts awarded to those companies.
I replied to the email asking to speak to a supervisor about the incident because they need to make sure this doesn’t happen again. What would happen if they “by mistake” forwarded other confidential information to your competitors?
I received a call back from Nelitha, and this is what pissed me off this most. It wasn’t that she didn’t want me to speak to a supervisor, it was that she said, “No one else received the document because she had Recalled the email.” For those that don’t know, check out http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA010917601033.aspx. It just means you can try and get your email back before it reaches the recipient, but mostly it only works for the internal office email.
Explaining to her that if I received the document, what makes her so sure the other 40 recipients didn’t receive it, she carried on to explain that it must definitely be so because she hit the recall button and out of the 41 people I am “definitely” the only person to have received it.
Let this be a lesson for those that trust their secretaries with confidential information. Who knows, the next time she can send out employee salary slips to the wrong people. Everyone can make mistakes, I can understand, but some mistakes can be avoided.
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