Being blamed for something I'm 99% sure I didn't do!

[DontPressSendTooSoon]

I have recently started a new job in a role where I deal a lot with confidential data.

I was replying to an email thread about some very confidential information involving a senior manager of staff. I replied to the people in the message (my boss and their boss) by pressing reply all, wrote the message, pressed send.

Immediately after I'd sent it I realised that a completely random person had been cc'd in. I had no idea who this person was, had never emailed them before.

Very confused I phoned my boss's boss (as boss is away and he is more involved in the situation) to say I don't know how this happened but XX is cc'd to this email.

He obviously wasn't happy, we managed to eventually get IT to retrieve the email as luckily the recipient hadn't read it, but he said it could have been a serious data breach and to be more careful etc. He's going to send an email to the team warning them of this risk.

I said I was totally confused as to how this random person could be cc'd in as I'd only pressed reply all to the original recipients. He said maybe my cursor was in the wrong place and it had autofilled.

At the time I accepted that maybe I'd done that, but on retracing my steps I've worked out it is impossible to cc someone you've never emailed before by accident. Autofill only works on previous recipients (on outlook) and still you'd need to do a few purposive clicks to get their name in the cc field. For someone you've not emailed before, you'd have to either put their entire email address in the cc field or go in to the directory and find them.

I'm new in this role and have my review next week. I'm really, really upset that this has happened and am 99% sure it wasn't me!

Do I say anything or keep quiet? I don't want it to look like I am not taking responsibility or shirking out of it. But a) I don't like to get the blame for something I've not done and b) whats to say it won't happen again?

If the original sender has bcc 'd the random person and you clicked on reply to all would the bcc person get it too? .if so would that show up in the trail though, probably not because a bcc person isn't seen by the other recipients.
Who sent the email originally? Is it someone who know can you talk to them about it?
I would try and put this down to experience at your review say you have no idea how this happened and that you will check and double check all emails in the future before sending them. Also point out that you put plans in place as soon as you could to put it right.
These things happen in big organisations its really not uncommon. I've received emails that have obviously been sent to me in error. Sometimes they are recalled before I see them if not I phone the sender to tell them I have deleted it.

What do you think happened?

It sounds worse at your review if you dont accept this mistake, show you understand the importance of confidentiality and say you will be more careful.

If you imply it wasnt you it is immature and shows lack of understanding and gives no reassurance it wont happen again.

Maybe it wasnt you, but this is highly unlikely. If you click "check names" in outlook it will find someone in directory.

Just double check when sending emails going forward.

Ok that's good advice, I did take responsibility yesterday but it's bugging me that I can't find a logical explanation for how my own actions have caused this, I really can't.

I'll keep schtum. I guess the lesser of the two evils is them thinking I did it rather than them thinking I am trying to wiggle out of taking responsibility.

If it was a glitch it chose the worst email to do it in but hey ho, IT retrieved it in time so no damage done.

To the PP who said you can delay messages on outlook, I will seriously look in to that!

Can i just clarify - the original email thread was person A and person B.

I replied all intending to reply to both these people.

A completely random person Z who was nothing to do with anyting was cc'd in. on the reply. I don't understand how this could have happened, he was never in the thread to begin with and works in a completely different department.

I'd never emailed him before and don't understand how autofill would have done that as I thought it only works on previous email recipients.

If someone can explain how this could have happened I'd be grateful.

My company's Outlook has everyone in the company's email as an autofill option. All I need to do is is type, say, "B" and "Joe Bloggs - [email protected]" will come up as an option, even if I've never emailed Joe Bloggs before.

If your company's Outlook is the same, I surmise you might have accidentally pressed "Z" while your cursor was in the CC box, "Zena Zabinski" (ie the person in the other department, person Z as you called them) will have come up in the autofill and it only takes a slip of the mouse and you've added them. A pure accident.

Update - my boss phoned me and said of her own accord before I'd said anything that she didn't understand how this could have happened and it could have been a glitch - so I feel exonerated, she doesn't blame me, yay!

That's good. To be fair, you will have let this happen, probably by not over-riding an assumption or suggestion that the email program made.

Going forward, check your email settings and untick any options to automatically complete or suggest additional email addresses.
If you have a delay send option, tick that - it will give you a few seconds to stop the email after you press send, so if you realise a mistake immediately, you can cancel the instruction.

If you need training, ask for it. Some organisations seem to assume people magically know how to use their ICT systems, but they can have settings that make things happen differently from on your system at home or in a previous organisation.

There is definitely something odd about cc/bcc but I can't remember what!

So it is possible that if someone is bcc'd in and you reply to all, they do get the response.

Aha but there's no way that the random guy would have been cc'd. He is a junior manager in a different department.

I could go for the 'autofill' theory of how this happened if it were not for the fact that (with my company anyway) you can't autofill someone who you've never emailed before, you have to either type in the whole email address manually or go into the directory find their name and click on it. All of which requires a few deliberate clicks.

Ah well I will go to the grave not sure of how this happened but how great is my manager, considering I'm new, to see that there's not a simple explanation and not let me feel bad about it. I love her!

A completely random person Z who was nothing to do with anyting was cc'd in. on the reply. I don't understand how this could have happened, he was never in the thread to begin with and works in a completely different department.

OP, albeit you believed a "completely random" person appeared, could that person have been someone you had at any point in time emailed in the past?

Outlook 'caches' previously emailed names from your organisation's Address Book within or outside email addresses. It is feasible you had by accident entered a letter into the cc field, upon which it matches it to the 'random' person's name (i.e it 'autosuggests' their name) and hitting return could have populated their details into the cc field of your email.

It's actually a far more common problem than people realise or care to admit. It's so quick, and if you're in a hurry anyway, before you know it, the person has been added.

I wouldn't beat yourself up about it, but for anything that's confidential or important, always type up the body of the email first, save it as a draft, reopen it and check it for typos etc, and only at the final stage of wanting to send that email, carefully populate the names, before checking and sending.

Sounds a faff, but it works for me every time, because I very nearly did the same thing, and it's scary!!