IM at Work, Part 2: Tools for Locking Down

Applications such as IM, Skype, and Web conferencing can deliver significant business value to business users. However, they can also introduce three main kinds of business risks: inbound threats, outbound leakage and regulatory and e-discovery non-compliance. The challenge is that many organisations have a mix of both public IM usage and enterprise IM usage.

Letting employees have unbridled access to free, consumer-level instant messaging applications running on their workplace computers is a security disaster waiting to happen.

Instant messaging applications are easy targets for hackers taking advantage of vulnerabilities. It is critical for businesses to pay attention to their employees' use of instant messaging during work hours, warn security pros.

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