Headline Feeds
IMlogic today released free software to help companies fight copyright piracy, avoid lawsuits from illegal file sharing and prevent damage from viruses and worms.
IM Detector Pro is designed to help corporations detect and block unmanaged instant messaging (IM), peer-to-peer (P2P) and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) traffic while they plan the most appropriate strategy to deploy and leverage managed instant messaging as a real-time business-communications tool.
"IM Detector Pro enables organizations of all sizes to secure their networks from the inherent risks of unmanaged IM and P2P usage while determining the best approach to managing and leveraging IM for their business," said IMlogic CEO Francis deSouza.
"We're offering IM Detector Pro for free because we believe organizations will want to immediately protect themselves from security threats and legal risks while implementing best practices and policies for leveraging IM to enhance real-time communications."
Meteoric Rise of IM
According to Genelle Hung, market analyst at industry research firm The Radicati Group, IM's meteoric rise has left many companies in desperate need of an effective means of managing it.
"Today, more than 80 percent of enterprises have IM or P2P in use, but less than 15 percent have the necessary IM management or enterprise IM solutions in place to protect against security breaches, meet corporate governance guidelines or avoid inappropriate use of file sharing," she said.
Without detection and management solutions in place, companies, universities and government organizations can be at risk of lawsuits stemming from media piracy, failure to meet legal governance guidelines, sexual harassment and other unmonitored P2P user behavior.
Security Risks
Furthermore, unmanaged IM and P2P use leaves networks open to the security risks associated with these types of communication, including viruses, identity spoofing and others.
"Many corporate executives are in denial, which quickly turns to anger when they discover unauthorized IM and P2P use in their companies and realize the increased security and legal risk and lost productivity," said Matt Cain, senior analyst at market research company Meta Group.
"The logical step for companies is to deploy software which detects and blocks IM and P2P traffic if necessary, so executives can determine what to do next. Ultimately, most of these executives will see IM's inherent benefits and deploy tools which allow use in a controlled fashion."
Talkback: 
