Investigating anonymous email - help, we're snookered
jindy
1 Post
Our HR dept has run out of ideas to effect a final decision on what we thought would be an easy to solve mystery.
An anonymous email hit our CEO making allegations about an employee that after careful investigation appeard to be unfounded. As a business, we are intending to pursue this individual for defamation and upon initial investigation found systems evidence to show that the email had actually been sent from within our corporate network - bravo!
But, not so fast. It appears that the way that part of our network is built, we can only conclude that it came from that office, not a specific individual. All 7 staff members swear they were not responsible and we can't find any reasonable way to pin down who did it.
Any ideas or do we lack sufficient evidence to continue?
-Jindy
Comments
Our HR dept has run out of ideas to effect a final decision on what we thought would be an easy to solve mystery.
An anonymous email hit our CEO making allegations about an employee that after careful investigation appeard to be unfounded. As a business, we are intending to pursue this individual for defamation and upon initial investigation found systems evidence to show that the email had actually been sent from within our corporate network - bravo!
But, not so fast. It appears that the way that part of our network is built, we can only conclude that it came from that office, not a specific individual. All 7 staff members swear they were not responsible and we can't find any reasonable way to pin down who did it.
Any ideas or do we lack sufficient evidence to continue?
-Jindy[/quote]
There are some further IT paths you can try to pursue. Can you reduce the list of possible suspects by looking at who was clocked in or signed onto their computer at the time the email was sent? If the email was anonymous, it was probably sent by some sort of web-mail. Who was on the website for that email provider at all on that day or around the time it was sent?
From a non-IT investigatory standpoint, can you fnd anybody who has an axe to grind against the person about whom the comments were made to the CEO? There may be something underground that people don't want to talk about, like a sexual relationship or illegal drug use.
I would be very careful about putting the employer's business at risk to go after someone for an unfounded complaint against one single employee. Especially if the email was only seen by the CEO and HR. Depending on the nature of the complaint/allegations, you may be facing a retaliation charge -- even if the origninal complaint "appeared to be" unfounded. And I would be concerned that you might just not have all the facts. Especiially since you use the word "appeared".
My opinion is stays the same if you knew who sent it.
Can you tell us the nature of the complaint? Because that could change my opinion. And if untrue, the employee should be the one to pursue any legal course of action.
I think you will be doing a disservice if you peruse this to the level you are. What message will you be sending to other employees who may want to report information/abuse to you? While yes, anonymous charges are difficult to investigate, I think that you will show more to your employees if you do your investigation and move on than go on a hunt to find the individual responsible especially since you state the allegation "appeared" to be unfounded. You also don’t want to be perceived as over reacting to situations that may arise.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />