There is nothing wrong in general with stopping leaks.
However, his email in particular, bearing in mind it wasn't sent to the leaker alone but to all (mostly innocent) staff, comes of as almost threatening (granted not in a life threatening way, but a job and happiness way). I'm sure it won't help morale at Cisco. He may think that it will only worry anyone thinking of making a leak, but innocent staff will worry too feeling threatened in case they accidentally let something slip to a loved one or such. Such tactics are necessary in, e.g. the CIA, where "loose lips sink ships" (i.e. lives are in danger), but are not appropriate in a civil commercial enterprise like Cisco.
In my mind, he would have been better served sending a polite, professional reminder of the rules and the penalties for breaking them.
He may even have been better served trying to fix the problems that caused the "embarrassing" situation to occur in the first place (the price gouging of public institutions) and cause discontent among his staff.
At the end of the day, the leak of the email kinda shows it isn't deterring the leaker(s).
As someone pointed out when this story hit slashdot, I think if anything this letter means that the guilty party has relatively little to worry about. If they had any idea at all who did it, I don't think they would be sending letters like that.
Could be, though if they need to do that it probably suggests the same thing. Also, there would be little guarantee of it being leaked by the same person, considering the rather ridiculous nature of it.
They might not know NOW who did it, but now there will be increased scrutiny, and it's attracted top-level scrutiny. They'll have Top Men on this. I imagine that the VP's past experience will help inform him of ways to trip up the leaker, and also influences the diligence of his pursuit.
However, his email in particular, bearing in mind it wasn't sent to the leaker alone but to all (mostly innocent) staff, comes of as almost threatening (granted not in a life threatening way, but a job and happiness way). I'm sure it won't help morale at Cisco. He may think that it will only worry anyone thinking of making a leak, but innocent staff will worry too feeling threatened in case they accidentally let something slip to a loved one or such. Such tactics are necessary in, e.g. the CIA, where "loose lips sink ships" (i.e. lives are in danger), but are not appropriate in a civil commercial enterprise like Cisco.
In my mind, he would have been better served sending a polite, professional reminder of the rules and the penalties for breaking them.
He may even have been better served trying to fix the problems that caused the "embarrassing" situation to occur in the first place (the price gouging of public institutions) and cause discontent among his staff.
At the end of the day, the leak of the email kinda shows it isn't deterring the leaker(s).