Protect your IM security

Instant messaging has become a common workplace tool, but companies that fail to install security software are doing so at their own peril. InfoWorld.com reports that many business have had difficulty limiting the usage strictly to internal use, making the need for security capabilities that support instant messaging and other real-time communication applications more pressing than ever. The publication offers IT executives some good advice on choosing appropriate IM security products.

The tips include determining the types of IM-related risks and threats that are relevant to your organization; assessing whether traffic logging and content archiving are important to you because of compliance and legal needs; figuring out what IM usage policy is relevant to your organization, including whether some communications should be blocked for certain groups but permitted for others; and determining if any fine-grained controls for IM filtering on user identity, IP addresses, file attachment type and embedded URLs are needed.

For more on IM security:
- check out this InfoWorld.com article