(FORTUNE Magazine) – EXPLOSIVE E-MAIL HQ: San Francisco FOUNDED: 1999 SALES: N.A. EMPLOYEES: 100 STOCK: Privately held ADDRESS: www.disappearing.com

When Mission: Impossible meets the workplace, e-mail self-destructs on cue, leaving nary a trace. Technology from Disappearing Inc. encrypts e-mail into an unreadable state before it's sent and allows the writer to select a detonation time (between 30 minutes and six months after it's dispatched). As soon as the message reaches its destination, the recipient's e-mail program requests a key from the sender's server to decode the message. Once the expiration date hits, that key is voided, making the e-mail permanently unreadable. Currently only Microsoft Outlook users can send exploding e-mail (a Lotus Notes version is in the works), but anyone can receive one. Download it for free at www.disappearing.com. Investment banking's infamous Chung surely wishes he had.

--Lee Clifford