Instant Messaging Security Threats

Business World Shocked By Threat of IM Worms, Viruses and Spyware!

Over half of the organizations using Instant Messaging (IM) believe it greatly improves overall company communications, but they are using it with some trepidation. 

The surprise is that over two thirds are very concerned about the potential security threats posed by viruses, worms and spyware.  This information was revealed in recent research conduct by Osterman Research.                                               

The research shows that Instant Messaging is being widely accepted by a broad spectrum of enterprises. 

Compliant and Manageable

As their staff download a range of consumer IM clients for both personal and business use, the IT department is once again left with the task of making it all safe, compliant and manageable.

Commenting on the issue, Jim Moffatt, of the IM Specialist Group and chairman of the Message '05 Instant Messaging workshop, said, "Instant messaging's greatest benefit is also its greatest danger if allowed to propagate ungoverned in the enterprise. 

Its ability to put business people in touch with each other more quickly than any other medium also means that those who wish us harm can accomplish their villainy with unprecedented, breathtaking speed."

He continued, "To embrace the medium without sufficient safeguards, the by-product of prudent, cognizant leadership, would render an organization unacceptably vulnerable.  To ban the medium places British industry at a competitive disadvantage and is no longer an option."

Real-World Applications

Further results reveal that 52 percent of organizations are using IM for real-world business applications although 75 percent of companies surveyed had not yet settled on one or more product as an IM standard.

Commenting on this result, Osterman said, "To date IM's huge success has been thanks to the viral uptake of the application. We fully expect to see this figure climb significantly as organizations roll out their own enterprise-grade IM systems and/or provide enterprise features to the current base of IM clients."

When those surveyed were asked about the IM systems they used, results demonstrated that while AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger continue to be the workplace IM clients of choice, a surprising new entrant is already present in a significant percentage of - Google Talk.

Other players making waves in the market are Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing (Sametime) which continues to be the leading enterprise IM systems in use, with Microsoft Live Communication Server also steadily increasing its market penetration. 

Osterman Research's survey was conducted across North America, Europe and Australia. 14 percent of respondents came from organizations with 100 email users, 32 percent with 101 to 1,000 email users and 54 percent were from enterprises with more than 1,000 email users.

The industries surveyed covered a wide range and were not limited to any particular field.  http://www.ostermanresearch.com/ 

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     Bruce Chandler

Instant Messaging Security Threats