No e-security, no e-safety.

When people send messages over the Internet they do not realise how insecure their transmissions are, claimed an e-business lawyer yesterday.

'Sending a message over the Internet is a little like sending a postcard or an unsealed letter,' said Ms Joanne Lawrence, of the Birmingham law firm Martineau Johnson.

'How many businesses even have the facility to encrypt messages before they are sent?

'The news about leaked memos from Downing Street illustrates that no one is safe unless they take firm measures to ensure security. Even then, they may have to contend with ... carelessness or malice.'

Ms Lawrence said memos written in the conventional way could be sealed in an envelope, marked 'private and confidential' and delivered direct.

'E-mails, on the other hand, go straight into a person's PC. Although it should be protected by a password, it can also be left ... open to anyone who cares to look,' said Ms Lawrence.