A recent TechTarget article has highlighted that "with instant messaging (IM) poised to become the de facto electronic business communication tool, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need to get a grip on its security risks".

Gartner predicts that by 2011 instant messaging will be the main conduit through which people will communicate, using video, voice as well as text. It will be so entrenched that by 2013, 95% of workers in leading global companies will use it as their primary way of communicating.  The article reports that if SMBs want to do business with those global organisations, they'll have to step up to the plate and adopt technologies to secure and manage IM use.

Some companies just try to block IM," said Michael Osterman, principal of Osterman Research Inc. "The problem with doing that is IM clients tend to be port crawlers. They find a way in."

An alternative to just blocking IM is to implement something from Akonix Systems Inc., FaceTime Communications Inc. or Symantec Corp. These products generally allow IT to control the clients used and to map IM handles to email addresses. You can really manage it without affecting users too much. "A third approach is to rip all that out and just deploy an enterprise IM solution," Osterman said.

We'd also suggest using a tool like Akonix with an enterprise IM system.

IM is where email was about 12 years ago, Osterman added, when companies were trying to figure out whether there was a business case for the technology. Back then, he said, companies were debating whether they needed to take control of email.  "Today you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone to say that," Osterman said.

Firstbrook said SMBs need to take a realistic look at what their risks are by not taking control of IM use.  "Using instant messaging has a couple of risks," he said. "One is disclosure of sensitive information -- intellectual property losses or salacious material. It's also a new channel for malware. That's a risk for everybody."

There are a lot of SMBs and enterprises to this day who have no IM management," said Don Montgomery, vice president of marketing at Akonix. "But smaller firms are starting to apply the same rigor to email and IM retention, mainly because they're trying to do business with larger firms. And larger firms are compelling them."

This is the link to the full article about security for instant messaging. 

Related Information:

• 33 IM attacks in September
• About Akonix
• Akonix
• Akonix IM Security for SME
• Akonix Module for the Blackberry
• Akonix Products Overview
• Enterprise Information Leaks
• Product Review - Akonix