Claire Swire email

The Claire Swire email of 2000 was supposedly a very personal email from Claire Swire to Bradley Chait, who worked at Norton Rose, a law firm in London. He forwarded it to six friends, one of whom in turn forwarded it further with the subject line of "Do you know Claire Swire" until it spread worldwide within days, and received wide coverage in newspapers and television. The author of the original email is in doubt, as Chait later alleged that the email was a hoax perpetrated by colleagues.^[1]

Because of its wide coverage, the incident is often cited as an example of the problems that staff can cause to the reputation of their employer (and the risk of embarrassment and disciplinary measures) by forwarding personal or questionable material.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ Is this the greatest ever email hoax? The tale of Claire Swire, swallowing and the new boy at Norton Rose By Kieren McCarthy Published Tuesday 12th December 2000 19:18 GMT The Register United Kingdom
2. ^ Phil Bowles (2003-11-01). "HR Perspective on Information Rights Management (IRM) in Office 2003". HR Gateway. DataSec UK Ltd. http://www.datasec.co.uk/press/2003_11_01.html. 
3. ^ Kieren McCarthy (2000-12-20). "Claire Swire email claims nine more victims". The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/12/20/claire_swire_email_claims_nine/. 

Further reading

• Jeevan Vasagar and Gwyn Topham (2000-12-16). "Cyber sweet nothing goes public via loose lips in City". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4106544,00.html.  — Contemporary Guardian story
• "Smutty e-mailers keep their jobs". BBC News. 2000-12-21. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1081543.stm.  — BBC report on the fate of forwarders
• Barbara Mikkelson (2000-12-20). "Risqué Business (Under the Yum-Yum Tree)". Urban Legends Reference Pages. http://www.snopes.com/risque/tattled/swire.htm. 

External links

• Advice to management quoting this incident
• ePolicy Institute article using the incident as an example
• Later examples of similar incidents