There are now few school children that keep in touch with their friends via ICQ, MSN or AOL Messenger — but also stockbrokers, currency dealers, and the IT department are constantly chatting with their most important contacts via Messenger software.

But, IM constitutes a huge, rampant infrastructure usage that poses a severe security risk for companies. The same is true for the use of peer-to-peer services, e.g. mp3 exchange services, which have also become pervasive in many organisations, but lack any administrative supervision whatsoever. These Peer to Peer services entail both security and legal risks.

In companies with complex and clearly defined workflows and processes, where flexible decision-making and coordination timed to the minute play a lesser role, it is questionable whether instant messaging is beneficial or not . Private chat sessions, and the constant distraction from larger tasks by incoming instant messages, can bring about a drop in productivity. A derogatory comment made by IM can be just as much of a legal problem as one made by email so there could also be exposure to potential litigation.

However, what is decisive is not the question of whether your company needs IM, as much as the answer that your company very probably already has IM without your knowledge.


Speaking technically, IM tools, similar to peer-to-peer exchanges, function as ‘wild’, non-standard protocols, which mount on HTTP or HTTPS protocols. They are capable of transferring not just active technologies such as scripts and macros but also all kinds of data attachments (word files, zip archives, etc), and thus can transfer all currently known carriers of viruses and worms. Content exchanged via peer-to-peer services also entail a considerable legal risk. A study of Gnutella P2P traffic showed that 47% of requests related to pornography and 97% infringed existing copyright. It is also evident that such content is often infected with viruses. Thus instant messaging and peer-to-peer exchanges pose threats every bit as dangerous as the flow of data into the company from email or web. In contrast, however, IM data flow cannot be controlled by firewalls, simple web filters and URL blockers.