Additional Mailbox - looking secretly

[MackMasterson]

We have a user mailbox here that we want to check out secretly without the owner knowing. We believe there might be some unauthorized activity gooing on. I have added the appropriate people to the permissions and opened the mailbox fine, but I want to make sure there is no knowledge of this by the owner.

Any thoughts? Pitfalls?'

Thanks!

 

[zbnet]

Yes - many.

In some countries this action can be breaking the law - people sometimes have an expectation of privacy unless you have explicitly informed them that they don't. I'm not a lawyer, but you should check this out. Also check out your IT policy, see what it says about who 'owns' the mail etc. And make sure you have a written request from management for the actions you have taken, to cover your back.

When in the mailbox, don't Read any mail - mail that suddenly goes from unread to read in a person's mailbox is a sure way to alert them that you are snooping. Also, reading the message will trigger any read receipt that the sender might have put on. Don't reply or forward any mail either (sounds obvious, I know). Use the preview pane viewer to look at the email, but only after you've made sure the setting to mark the message as read after X seconds is turned off.

And the first time you log in, make sure the option in Outlook to empty the delete items folder when closing Outlook is turned off - if the user has turned it off and you don't, you end up emptying their deleted items folder, which they will expect to be full...

 

[Griffyn]

And don't forget, e-mails of the type you're wanting to find are usually deleted by the user as soon as they're read/sent. A better way of monitoring user's e-mails is to set up Message Journaling, which sets up a new mailbox for the site that receives a copy of every e-mail sent or received by anyone. Consult Microsoft's Knowledgebase for help on doing this. Obviously it can't be used after the fact, but if you have a policy of monitoring people's e-mails, then this feature is a must.

 

[Spirit]

Or why not set up a retention period of deleted items restore them to a different location? Or how about setting up another mailbox as a reciepient and delivering mail to both.... oh the POWER!!!!!

Must..... resist...... the..... dark..... side.....

 

[MackMasterson]

Spirit...

Thanks! How can I set up another mailbox as a recipient?

 

[zbnet]

On the mailbox you want to monitor, select the Delivery Options tab, and in the Alternate Recipient section enter the extra mailbox. Be sure to tick the box that delivers a copy to both recipients...

 

[jnalpak]

which group do i need to add users to to be able to view these users from my desk

 

[zbnet]

Exchange doesn't work like that - it uses specific permissions set in Exchaneg Admin. So you would need to define and set the permissions up yourself.