Sent an email to the wrong address

LegacyUser

I have just sent a confidential email to the wrong address (typo). The email is not valuable to the person who received it (a random American). It is a scan of a contract with handwritten amendments.
Should I contact the random American?
Should I ignore it?

Must I tell the client?
Must I tell my boss?

BizzyC

Wait, so is it relevant to your job at all?

If yes, I'd tell your boss and let compliance know in case there's anything in the doc that's sensitive and not something you should see.

LegacyUser

It is work related. I sent it to 'customername@gmail.com' instead of 'customername@customercompany.com'

I googled customername@gmail.com and it appears to be an American who runs a B&B.

Stheno

Can you recall it?

Jim2007

email wrong addess wrote: »

I have just sent a confidential email to the wrong address (typo). The email is not valuable to the person who received it (a random American). It is a scan of a contract with handwritten amendments.
Should I contact the random American?
Should I ignore it?

Must I tell the client?
Must I tell my boss?

You should inform your boos right away - perhaps this random American has a kind heart and decides to return to your company....

mitresize5

Inform your boss immediately.

Mistakes happen, this may not be a big one but its not for you to decide.

If this comes back you will be in far more trouble than you may or may not be now.

amen

a little off post but email is not confidential.

While the chance is remote, even if the email was sent to the correct person it could be interrupted enroute.

If sending confidential information, password protect the file and ring the person with the password(even this is not totally secure)

Tompatrick

amen wrote: »

a little off post but email is not confidential.

While the chance is remote, even if the email was sent to the correct person it could be interrupted enroute.

If sending confidential information, password protect the file and ring the person with the password(even this is not totally secure)

Of course it's confidential. Under the Data Protection Act this would be regarded as a Data Breach if the contract was with an individual. If would be regarded as a Data Incident if the contract was with a company

syklops

Tompatrick wrote: »

Of course it's confidential. Under the Data Protection Act this would be regarded as a Data Breach if the contract was with an individual. If would be regarded as a Data Incident if the contract was with a company

The data is confidential. Amens point was email as a transport mechanism doesnt guarantee the information remain confidential without employing encryption, or other security mechanisms.

Tompatrick

syklops wrote: »

The data is confidential. Amens point was email as a transport mechanism doesnt guarantee the information remain confidential without employing encryption, or other security mechanisms.

No defence under the act

syklops

Tompatrick wrote: »

No defence under the act

Amen was giving advice to the OP, I'm not sure what your point is.

Mrs OBumble

Tompatrick wrote: »

No defence under the act

Confidential data should not be sent by unencrypted email.

Tompatrick

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Confidential data should not be sent by unencrypted email.

Per what regulation?

Mrs OBumble

Tompatrick wrote: »

Per what regulation?

Per pure common sense. Email is insecure. If you wouldn't write it on that back of a postcard and send it thru the regular mail, then you shouldn't send it thru email.

magicmoves

If it is confidential then the e-mail should be encrypted

daheff

OP -to be honest with you, i'd say the recipient doesnt really care. I wouldnt worry too much about it.


As long as its not confidential information with which the incorrect recipient could gain any financial benefit (ie through stock market trading etc) then I'd be inclined to ignore the fact you sent it to them by mistake. In this case then you possibly should be talking with your manager.


Most likely if they care they'll email /ring you and advise you of your mistake.

I'd bet you wont hear anything about it again.

ebbsy

daheff wrote: »

OP -to be honest with you, i'd say the recipient doesnt really care. I wouldnt worry too much about it.


As long as its not confidential information with which the incorrect recipient could gain any financial benefit (ie through stock market trading etc) then I'd be inclined to ignore the fact you sent it to them by mistake. In this case then you possibly should be talking with your manager.


Most likely if they care they'll email /ring you and advise you of your mistake.

I'd bet you wont hear anything about it again.

I would go with that advice. A problem has not happened yet so d'ont make one.

garbeth

Mistakes happen. What happens next is not up to you. Tell your manager what happened and how you plan to rectify it. Do t keep this to yourself.

My advice to rectify it is to email the unintended receiver and ask them to delete your previous mail. Your manager may require that other things happen.

In the future write the subject and body of an email first before addressing it.

Bandana boy

garbeth wrote: »

In the future write the subject and body of an email first before addressing it.

Sorry , surely addressing first will give you far more time to realise your mistake ?

Pac1Man

Bandana boy wrote: »

Sorry , surely addressing first will give you far more time to realise your mistake ?

Your mind may be focused on the content of the mail, attachments etc. while you are typing in the contacts. At least when the body of the mail is complete you only have one thing to worry about.

Mrs OBumble

Pac1Man wrote: »

Your mind may be focused on the content of the mail, attachments etc. while you are typing in the contacts. At least when the body of the mail is complete you only have one thing to worry about.

Another trick is to put some boll*x into the cc or bcc field - something that your email system will not recognise as an address. (I usually do sdfdd - make sure you've checked it, so it doesn't resolve to an address.

Don't take it out until you're 100% ready to send: contents and addresses all double-checked.

This nicely removes the risk of sending before you've finished due to a premature Ctrl/Enter.

whomitconcerns

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Another trick is to put some boll*x into the cc or bcc field - something that your email system will not recognise as an address. (I usually do sdfdd - make sure you've checked it, so it doesn't resolve to an address.

Don't take it out until you're 100% ready to send: contents and addresses all double-checked.

This nicely removes the risk of sending before you've finished due to a premature Ctrl/Enter.

Or you can tell outlook and most other programs to insert a delay before the email actually gets sent. Helped me a lot of times.

andrew

Tell your boos. It's a decent chance to show him/her you take responsibility, own up to mistakes and in general build trust, while not getting you in much trouble in practice.

(though probably not a great strategy if your boss is an arsehole).

Pac1Man

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Another trick is to put some boll*x into the cc or bcc field - something that your email system will not recognise as an address. (I usually do sdfdd - make sure you've checked it, so it doesn't resolve to an address.

Don't take it out until you're 100% ready to send: contents and addresses all double-checked.

This nicely removes the risk of sending before you've finished due to a premature Ctrl/Enter.

Funny thing is, it doesn't how much you check and double check, as soon as you press the send button your heart still skips a beat.

micosoft

Most companies have a boiler plate disclaimer attached to the bottom of the email stating that it is for the intended receipiant only and that if you received it in error please delete the email.
I wouldn't worry about it too much OP. In all probability if I received an email with a unknown attachment I'd presume it was a phishing attack and delete let along open the attachment...

etoughguy

Stheno wrote: »

Can you recall it?

Im pretty certain you can only recall mails from within your own email domain

wildlifeboy

youd be crazy to tell your boss, the chances of it coming back to get you in trouble are zilch and this is coming from someone in IT security

gizmo555

wildlifeboy wrote: »

youd be crazy to tell your boss, the chances of it coming back to get you in trouble are zilch and this is coming from someone in IT security

Who's to say the unintended recipient won't contact the company?

Unencrypted email is inherently insecure. If the OP's employer routinely uses unencrypted email to send confidential information, then in the long run incidents of this kind are completely inevitable. Scapegoating the OP won't change this.

I work in data protection and this kind of use of unencrypted email is in my experience by far the commonest cause of data breaches. It always amazes me how many companies I work with will ask me to sign the most stringent NDAs and then freely send all kinds of highly confidential information to me by unencrypted email.

By the way, this is what the Data Protection Act says about securing personal data:

"appropriate security measures shall be taken against unauthorised access to, or unauthorised alteration, disclosure or destruction of, the data, in particular where the processing involves the transmission of data over a network, and against all other unlawful forms of processing.” (My emphasis.)

realdanbreen

andrew wrote: »

Tell your boos. It's a decent chance to show him/her you take responsibility, own up to mistakes and in general build trust, while not getting you in much trouble in practice.

(though probably not a great strategy if your boss is an arsehole).

No,No,No.
Far from building trust it will be in his subconcious that you tend to screw up.
My experience has been that you should never plead guilty, never admit anything, in fact keep your trap shut. You will avoid a lot of hassle that way.

thisonetaken

gizmo555 wrote: »

Who's to say the unintended recipient won't contact the company?

.)

If the recipient contacts anyone it will be the sender, and they'll say something like "hey think you send this to the wrong person," and the sender will be like "yeah sorry about that thanks."

Chances are they'll just delete the email though.