Can a company record hotmail

there are only a few ways a company could do this..

1. it is being used on terminal services and screenshots are kept on file...

2. keyloggers are used without the users knowledge (records keystrokes on end users pc)

3. systems are auditted for web access (websites visited are recorded, but what is type inside of them is not)

Good luck

There are numerous software packages that companies can use to monitor and record web usage.

Even if they do not record the actual web pages, it is very easy to maintain a complete history for each user.
Further, they can real-time monitor employees usage of the internet.

Basically, your friend should read and follow the companies guidelines for using the internet.
If she is allowed to access web based e-mail accounts, she should use care and diligence to NOT send or receive ANY messages that she would not want to share with anyone (or everyone) in the company.

Chas

I will add to the paranoia.

Yes, it is possible for the sysadmins to read Hotmail messages of your friend, if they really wanted to. They could be running a sniffer on a span port, and that would give them access to all the traffic running on their switch. And Hotmail is not encrypted, so it would be in clear text.

If you friend still wants to send/receive personal e-mail while at work AND they don't want this type of scanning being effective, then they need to send encrypted e-mail.

A site I use that sends 128-bit encrypted e-mail is www.hushmail.com

I use it for my personal e-mail. It is web-based, just like Hotmail, but it is SSL encrypted. So, you go to their SSL-locked page, log in, and read your e-mail.

Then, if someone were to sniff the packets, they would just see encrypted text, and not the e-mails.

Anyway, just a thought.

All 3 of the previous answers are right. I just want to point out to you (and to Joseph Moore) that even if you were to use the encrypted webmail service your protection is limited to sniffing. If she is being keylogged or screenshotted, all the encryption in the world will not help. I agree with the other guy...
tell her to read the company policies and do not send anything from work she wouldn't want to share with anybody and/or everybody at work. it's the only truly safe way.

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