Ever sent an e-mail, and regretted it the moment that you hit the "send" button? The perils posed by indiscreet e-mails could soon become a thing of the past as technology firms race to emulate Hollywood with the introduction of self-destructing messages.

Security specialists gathered at this week’s Infosec conference in London said that the control of sensitive documents was one of the industry's most urgent priorities.

Errant electronic commmunications, unintentionally dispersed beyond their intended audiences, have provided a steady flow of embarassing and incriminating information in recent years.

Unsecure e-mails have also been targeted by hackers to access sensitive information ranging from private bank account details to corporate secrets.

"Enterprise rights management, in the industry jargon, is one of the big ticket items under development," Stuart Okin, a technology specialist from Accenture, the consultants, said.

"People want to be able to control their e-mail and improve security."

Software developers are concentrating on developing a system where users have the option to ensure documents expire after a certain time and that the rights attached to them – which dictate who can view them – are permanent.

But while characters in Mission Impossible have had to contend with self-destructing messages, office workers in the future can expect a more sedate solution.

"If people do try to spread a protected document beyond its specified perimeters, then it will break down into a pile of meaningless electronic goo," said Mr Okin.

"That means that only a specified number of people will be able to see a document and that, say, they wont be able to cut and paste its contents."

Software firms are still some way from perfecting their systems. But the launch at Infosec of Microsoft’s Windows Rights Management Services Service Pack 1 gave companies a further weapon in the battle to control access to applications such as documents, e-mails and spreadsheets.

"Access control and firewalls keep intruders out, and encryption protects data in transit," Microsoft said earlier this year.

"But people basically have the freedom to do whatever they wish with the information once it's in their hands, and this problem is magnified once it leaves the company domain."

In 2000, an infamous e-mail outlining the amorous exchanges of two City lawyers, Bradley Chait and Claire Swire, warned thousands of its recipients of the dangers of committing anything potentially embarrassing or incriminating to electronic ink.

Earlier this month, President George W Bush told a collection of American newspaper editors that he does not send e-mail, even to his twin daughters, because he fears his "personal stuff" could be made public.

But not everybody has wised up. Earlier this year, Harry Stonecipher, the chief executive of Boeing, was judged to have violated his company's code of conduct when he sent a female executive a sexually explicit e-mail. Despite overseeing a improvement of the aerospace giant’s fortunes, he was forced to resign.

And although Alastair Campbell, formerly the Prime Minister’s official chief of communications, might have been expected to know better, he recently fell foul of his BlackBerry when he sent an e-mail to a BBC journalist, suggesting he and his colleagues should "f*** off". But even the proposed new protected e-mail codes are unlikely to prevent such embarrassments.

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