CONFIDENTIAL information is leaking out of companies due to careless email use, a survey has revealed.

Nearly 40 per cent of workers have received confidential information that was not meant for them, according to a poll conducted by email filtering firm SurfControl.

Another 15 per cent admit sending confidential information by mistake, and 17 per cent of those are unable to retrieve the data.

Martino Corbelli, the director of marketing at SurfControl, said: "Between 70 and 90 per cent of company information is stored in electronic format and around 35 per cent of this is held in the email system."

He added: "Alarm bells should be ringing, but I'm not sure they are."

Over 90 per cent of respondents said they use email to send and receive confidential information.