Battening Down The Instant-Messaging Security HatchesBattening Down The Instant-Messaging Security Hatches

Instant messaging has become one of the fastest-growing vulnerabilities in business computing--and fixes to the problem are becoming one of the hottest areas in IT security.

Akonix Systems Inc., a startup, this week will launch software designed to let IT managers wrap a layer of security around "consumer" IM applications that are increasingly being used on business PCs. A second vendor, WiredRed Software Corp., is introducing an audit and reporting server that lets users of its IM application log and archive messages. And last week, Cordant Inc. released an archiving tool for public IM networks such as AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger.

Nowhere is the concern greater than in the financial-services industry, which is under pressure from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers to log IM exchanges with customers. Terra Nova Trading LLC, a Chicago firm that services hedge funds, asset managers, and day traders, has been testing WiredRed's e/pop audit and reporting server for that purpose.

"By staying fully informed and out ahead, when a ruling [from the SEC] comes down, we'll be right there," says Kevin Ott, Terra Nova's VP of technology. The company tries to maintain control over the apps employees run internally, Ott adds, but instant messaging was beginning to make that impossible.

At California State University in San Marcos, the focus is on viruses that find their way through the campus firewall attached to instant messages. "With instant messaging, things just sail right through," says Mike Irick, assistant director of academic computing. The school is testing Akonix's L7 software as a way of deleting IM attachments. Once Akonix refines the antivirus functionality, Irick adds, the school will scan viruses so it can jettison only infected attachments.

But IM systems for business environments may be a better long-term solution than simply securing consumer IM apps, Ferris Research analyst Michael Sampson says. "If I was an IT administrator, I don't know that I'd want to have those public-service clients on my network." WiredRed's server starts at $4,000, and Akonix's software at about $45 per user.