Instant Messaging has exponentially grown as the communications vehicle of choice for business, providing fast access to clients, interactive communication, and low cost. The downsides, of course, are security. While the firewall and security issues remain, another issue is compliance with various communication recording laws. Currently, many jurisdictions require email archiving. Instant Messaging is interpretively included in some of these regulations, with courts yet to make final determinations on the issue.

Deploying an archive solution — such as the freeGuard Capture solutions from freedom9 — may be the only solution to compliance. The freeGuard products can record IM and other internet communications.

Instant Messaging Growth

Instant Messaging, often called IM, is revolutionizing  communications in the workplace in the same way email and VOIP has in the past. Convenience, interaction, speed and low cost are all good reasons to implement IM policies and infrastructure. The key issues are security related. 

It is possible to bypass many well-established security processes such as firewalls through IM, jumping access to the network without going through gateways. Viruses and worms often do make their way on to networks through file transfers. Buffer overflows can be exploited. Day-to-day IM chatting can be dangerous. With a properly configured firewall and anti-virus program, these issues are largely avoided, and the advantages of IM can be fully enjoyed by any environment. Still, Firewall Tunelling, through IM's ability to exploit open ports on a firewall, remains a big issue.

The Remaining Issue

Liability, liability, liability, compliance, compliance, compliance... the new mantra of businesses threatened with multi-million dollar litigation, staff issues and compliance with new laws.

With anonymous logins on IM, through false identities, and the inability of many email archivers deployed by corporations to capture IM, the risks are very real. 

Many courts have already set major precedents in landmark cases where email was the vital evidence in a lawsuit. Email archiving is no longer optional. But what about IM. Arguably, more IM traffic flies in and out of most corporate offices than any other form of communication, including Email and Skype.

IM services pose a very real threat to confidential corporate data, not to mention issues of libel and slander, liability from departing employees, and any number of issues. Statistically, disgruntled employees are most likely to use IM in a workplace with an anonymous ID.

In most workplaces, content is sent and received via IM with recording or monitoring, and often without the knowledge of the corporation. The hit to productivity is a factor — as employees chat back and forth with friends on IM — but the biggest issues are compliance and liability. New compliance regulations can be interpreted to include IM.

The Only Solution

The only valid solution to the issue is to pro-actively assume the courts will find IM to be a form of Email — almost inevitable. To plan for this, research and deploy Email Archiving solutions that also include fully featured Internet Recording functionality (often called Internet Recorders). Some, such as the advanced freeGuard line from freedom9 will capture all forms of Internet communication, including IM and Emails, for a very low cost. When compared to million-dollar litigation settlements, a few thousand dollars for a robust solution is an easy business decision.