Microsoft's next version of Office will offer help to companies and government departments that have fallen foul of malicious leaks of information.

Microsoft Office 2003 (formerly Office 11) will include Information Rights Management, a feature that allows firms to manage and enforce document management and corporate data security policy.

It will also allow authorised staff to apply data controls on a per-document basis.

Information Rights Management is not being pitched as a fully secure mechanism for safeguarding data but rather as a means to apply policy-based regulation companywide.

The software - due for launch later this year - will include the ability to disable individual documents; prevent or limit access to a file; restrict the number of times a document can be copied or printed; prevent the sending of a file as an attachment and prevent the forwarding of email to unauthorised users.

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