Forrester Research has released its email marketing vendor report, in which the research company analyzed nine enterprise-class email vendors. Strongview, Epsilon, Oracle Responsys and Salesforce ExactTarget were identified as leaders in the space. Silverpop and Yesmail Interactive were named "strong performers." Acxiom and Experian Marketing Services were named "contenders" and Zeta Interactive was called a "risky bet" in the report.

Email marketing services firm Emma has hired Simon O'Day as its vice president of global from Oracle's Responsys. O'Day will be based in Melbourne, Australia and will report directly Emma CEO, Clint Smith. He will be responsible for the company's international growth, as well as being tasked with expanding relationships with channel and product partners.

Email open rates averaged 32.9 percent in Q1 2014, up 5.7 percent, according to a new report from Epsilon. The study, which analyzed the performance of 6.2 billion emails across 13 industries, also revealed that click through rates averaged 4.3 percent, which remained consistent throughout the past year.

Prosecutors are reading email communications between inmates and their lawyers and using these communications against criminals in court. The issue has led to court battles debating if inmates should have a right to confidential email communications with their lawyers. However, the federal prison email system Trulincs does require that users accept a notice that communications are monitored.

Security researchers at Palo Alto Networks have identified a new threat in cyber attacks originating in Nigeria. The attacks, which are being done by the same people behind 419 email scams which solicit money via email, are affecting clients based in Taiwan and South Korea. The scammers have been able to hack and spy on businesses without detection using off-the-shelf hacking tools. The scammers have gained access to company servers via spam emails with malicious attachments.

Hospital group Kaiser Permanente has plans to conduct a study to explore how and why patients and physicians are using secure email. The program is based on research, published in the Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, which found that the organization needs to better understand associations between secure patient-physician email and utilization of healthcare services. The organization is currently looking at more than 15 million secure emails from more than 4.5 million members.

Yahoo Japan has introduced a new program called "Yahoo Ending," which allows users to write and schedule emails to be sent after they have died. "Yahoo Japan's job has been to solve social problems through the power of the Internet and to provide services from the cradle to the grave," Megumi Nakashima, a spokeswoman for the company, told The Independent. "We had services for the cradle part but not the grave part." The service also lets users deactivate their accounts in the event of their death, as well as delete their documents, photos and videos.

Massachusetts-based startup Cannonball is bringing its email subscription management iPad app to the iPhone. The app allows users to visually sort and organize email including the ability to filter subscription emails into a separate folder automatically. iPad app users use the app a couple of times a week, mainly to organize their processes. The company expects users to engage with the iPhone app on a daily basis.

Email encryption firm Virtu has introduced a new service that allows businesses that use Google Apps to encrypt its emails. The goal is to make it easier for companies working in Google Apps to keep their email communications secure. The tool uses a browser extension to encrypt content and attachments, which can then be sent through mainstream email providers including Microsoft, Yahoo and Google. Users can add an encryption key for a message and add actions such as limiting message forwarding and tagging the emails with an expiration time.

London-based house hunter Zoe Butler was outraged this week after her inquiry to look at an apartment was returned with an offensive email chain. She had written to the agency asking if they could show her an apartment in London. They had forwarded the request between agents and referred to the potential as a "tart" in their correspondence. Butler saw the email chain when the agent did get back to her and emailed back asking if this way how the agency generally operated. The agent apologized for the unprofessional behavior in another email to Butler.