Securing IM for the workplace
I am a big user of the Instant Messengers. I am usually online with all three of the major ones (Yahoo, MSN, AOL) at any given time. Managing all three with Trillian. Just yesterday, I got word that my company wants to make the employees use their IM apps only within the office’s network (They will be tracking the IM messages.). That would be nearly impossible…people chiming in whenever they see you online or if you are running in invisible mode you may want to shoot a quick note to someone you see online. It is just too easy to communicate this way. Companies are forcing us to go back to using the phone…I digress. A company from France, Secway, has developed a method for securing the IM chatter. Secway offers two types of secure IM products that support MSN, Yahoo, AOL and ICQ–SimpLite is free for personal users while corporate users can opt for the licence-based SimpPro (which costs US$25 for one to 24 seats). Well this is the start of the end of external IM use at work. I guess I better start using the IM feature on my cellphone.