A good number of offices tend to be very lenient when it comes to Internet usage at the office. After all, even if most companies give out special work e-mail accounts as a standard protocol, not all work-related messages are sent exclusively to that account. If we are able to check our personal e-mails at work, we can be sure that we are up to date in whatever is going on in the business. Enabling instant messaging software and widgets and being able to visit social networks such as Facebook and Twitter from time to time also helps in taking away the blandness of an office routine, making work more bearable and fun. Sometimes, though, it provides too much fun.

Being allowed access to your own personal pages during office hours is a double-edged sword, not only in terms of productivity but also in ensuring the security of your company’s local network. Your company depends on a complex, perpetually running and continuously changing network. Despite its large capacity and standard network security functions, office connections are still extremely delicate. One little glitch has the potential to throw off the entire operation. For small businesses that give their workforces unlimited permission to visit personal sites and pages using office network resources, their lenient attitude could open a network up to certain operational and security risks.

The Speed Turns Slow

Video streaming through the Internet takes up a whole lot of bandwidth. Frequently watching videos on YouTube, playing Imeem or downloading and playing online games during office hours can cause a lag in Internet speed and make the local area network act up.

The Guard Goes Down

Every time you visit a website on your office computer, you are giving viruses and other digital threats an opening to infect your network. You also become susceptible to being baited by phishers and online scammers. These risks exist whenever you log on to the Internet, whether at home or from your office desktop. However, offices usually run on a shared network server, meaning if you have unwittingly downloaded a virus from an e-mail, that virus can easily spread and infect the other office computers.

Everyone should be more cautious about what he or she surfs on the Internet while at the office. None of us want to be the cause for the great crash of the company server. The best way to keep IT security high is to make sure that all network security measures are updated and enabled. Having a third party server and desktop management specialist on board can help a business maintain its internal IT’s health.

Take everything in moderation. The rule holds true even in using your office computer for personal use. The reason why we go to the office five days a week is to work, not to surf the Internet at one’s leisure. By taking extra care as we browse through our personal pages during office hours, and by observing proper work conduct, we can consistently release productive output and maintain efficient IT security.

To learn more about securing your IT systems, visit the All Covered website or call 866-446-1133.

However, the Internet, along with email as one of its components, has been created on the basis of trust. The early developers of the Internet exchanged ideas and collaborated freely on the early Internet as their platform for their research collaborations, trusting that they are communicating and exchanging classified files with people they know. But as the years progressed, and as email and the Internet advanced as a whole, the number of users exchanging messages through the Internet has grown tremendously.

Today, many perpetrators of online theft are devising schemes that are aimed at grabbing unsuspecting individuals’ personal data. Some online thieves are even creating means to penetrate businesses and take away precious corporate information. One such scheme is phishing. Phishing is a fraudulent online correspondence that has been created to dupe people into giving away personal information such as credit card numbers, TIN numbers, bank account numbers and ATM card PINs. Phishing can also take your Web identity, allowing the perpetrator to transact business online using your identity and other information that is pertinent to you.

Hackers who carry out phishing campaigns do so by sending emails that usually ask you to confirm or update information including your bank account number, your email password and ATM PIN number. One such phishing scam is an email disguised as coming from a bank. Other scams are posed as messages coming from online payment services such as PayPal or Xoom, asking you to validate your username and password.

It is sad to note that thousands of people and many businesses have already been deceived, and have lost millions of dollars in the process. And as more and more people and corporate entities have become aware of this fraudulent activity, online scammers have been diligently working on other schemes that they believe they can pull off to steal other people’s hard-earned money.

To avoid having you or your business become a victim to phishing and other online scams, here are some practical tips from ThinkPlanInvest.com.

10 Steps to Avoid Falling Prey to Phishing Scams

1. If you are doubtful about the credibility of the email, DO NOT click on any link provided in the email. This may trigger malicious codes to be installed on your PC.

2. Before you share any information on a website in response to an email, always ensure that the URL shown in the email matches the URL of the bank website. If it does not, you have valid reason to suspect that there’s something fishy.

3. Do not open unexpected e-mail attachments or instant message download links.

4. Check the web address carefully. One trick is to mouse over the link that has been sent to you. The actual destination URL is shown on the bottom of your browser. If it is not the website you thought or if it has strange extensions, like “.cn” or any other foreign country extension do not click on it.

5. Check for the Padlock icon at the bottom right corner of the webpage. It must be always ‘On’ during secure transactions.

6. Ensure that you have installed the latest anti-virus/anti-spyware/personal firewall/security patches on your computer.

7. Always use a non-admin user ID for daily work on your computer.

8. Do not access banks or make payments using your debit or credit card from shared or unprotected computers in public places like cyber cafes.

9. Do not transfer funds to or share your account details with unknown/non-validated sources, especially those luring you with commissions, attractive offers or prizes.

10. If you receive an email from a friend and the tone or language is out of character, don’t open any attachments or follow any links. On Facebook, a common phishing scam has included getting messages from friends with links that install a Trojan horse if you follow the link. The messages come from hacked accounts.

To find help in securing your IT systems, visit All Covered or call 866-446-1133.

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Because of the uncertainties brought about by natural and man-made disasters, you, as a small business owner, should ask yourself whether your company’s data is disaster-proof. Data and network systems are some of the most mission-critical assets of small businesses. Unfortunately, many companies take for granted the all-important task of proactively protecting their companies from data loss, simply because disasters occur only every once in a while. However, one in every five businesses experience data loss due to sudden power outage as a direct result of natural disasters. This underlines the importance of data and disaster recovery systems for businesses.

How will disasters affect your business?

The impact of disasters to any company, big or small, can be devastating. Today, data and other IT systems have become completely indispensable to small companies. One disastrous blow to a company’s data facility could disrupt their entire operations, leading to a loss of opportunity, additional expenses incurred for repairs and data recovery, a significant drop in productivity level, stalled cash flow, and because of this, it is of utmost importance to create a solid plan that will prepare your business for any disasters that could strike anytime in the future. Sufficient and proper planning on recovery strategy should be carried out so that your business will be able to get back on its feet after a disaster.

Just how important are data backups?

Implementing a backup system is a sure way to keep your business’ important data safe in the event of a critical systems failure. Backups are very important for a quick recovery or restoration of lost or damaged data. Because of this, a solid plan for data backup should be prepared and implemented before it’s too late.
Once a backup system is in place, it is important that businesses conduct at least weekly backup operations in order to minimize data loss and enable faster data restoration. The frequency of doing backups is determined by the volume of data that a company stores in its servers. The bigger the volume of data the company deals with on a regular basis, the more often the data backup should be done.

Preparing your company’s data recovery

When planning for your business’ data recovery strategy, initially, your company should conduct a business impact analysis in order to identify the physical and non physical effects of disasters on your business’ operations. This way, your company will be able to have a greater insight on recovery priorities and develop a solid IT strategy for recovery. This sort of analysis will also help your business identify the vulnerable areas of your IT network, a very essential step in building a strong recovery strategy.

The benefits of outsourcing

As companies become more dependent on virtualization and as IT infrastructure becomes a vital component of small business, nothing can be more disastrous than when these aspects are completely devastated by disasters. And because most small companies do not have the budget for an in-house IT staff to take care of their data and network systems, the best practice is to turn to a reliable IT services provider that will not only help you significantly save cost on IT maintenance, but also help you prepare and deploy an effective and comprehensive recovery solution.

To learn more about how to look for the right IT solutions company for your IT needs, visit AllCovered.com or call 866-446-1133.

Check out our guide to choosing the best IT companies

• VPN- virtual connections between your home and corporate network can easily spread viruses and malware from one location to the other.
• Firewall- a misconfigured firewall gives access to local resources through the internet.
• Wireless- unsecured wireless networks broadcast signals that unauthorized users can hijack inside or outside your building.
• Mail server- improperly configured servers can be forced into relaying spam.
• Email- in addition to sending infected attachments, hackers now use “phishing” and “redirects.”  Phishing schemes attempt to lure an email recipient into entering personal, financial, or proprietary business information into websites that appear legitimate.  Re-directs will reroute a seemingly respectable hyperlink to a malicious or infected site.
• Web-email- an infected email from a web based service such as Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail can easily infect your workstation and then your entire corporate IT environment because web email will bypass most of your network’s security.
• Web browser- Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari all have various vulnerabilities that can expose your workstation to malicious applications if you browse to an infected or compromised web site.
• Laptops- because most laptops are set to detect unsecured Wi-Fi points (Barnes & Noble, Borders, McDonalds, Starbucks, etc.), and because many users automatically allow the connection, it is easy to pick up viruses and malware and bring them back to office if you connect to those points.
• USB drives- portable storage devices, mobile phones and mp3 players can transport viruses from an unprotected home computer and infect your entire corporate IT network.

While there are multiple security vulnerabilities on a typical IT environment, a good security plan can address these weaknesses.  To learn more about securing your IT network, please call the security experts at All Covered at 866-446-1133.

According to Verizon Communications, Inc., hackers made off with at least 285 million electronic records in 2008.  Identity thieves are getting better at exploiting careless mistakes that leave companies and individuals vulnerable to attack.  These 285 million compromised records were all used in crimes involving stolen identity (e.g., buying homes and medical coverage under someone else’s identity) or in crimes such as making counterfeit credit cards.  Ninety percent of the breaches investigated could have been avoided with basic security measures (93% of all compromised records in the study came from the financial sector).

One of the key findings in the study is recognition of how valuable so-called “non-critical” computers are to hackers.  Peter Tippett, vice president of research and intelligence for Verizon’s business security solutions division says “Criminals aren’t looking to crash through the front door with a brazen computer attack. Often they’re content to feel around the edges and look for vulnerabilities that can get them in through the equivalent of a side window.”  Even by tapping into computers of low-level employees who don’t handle sensitive data, hackers can get a toehold for installing more malicious software that scans the network traffic and looks for vulnerabilities in other computers.

The study also found that data breaches are getting more severe because criminals are using sophisticated new programs that were custom-designed for particular attacks and weren’t known to the security community or law enforcement.

For a business that does not have Unified Threat Prevention, that’s a risk that leaves key corporate data, financial information, and private employee and customer information unprotected.

Don’t take any chances when it comes to protecting your business’s data, documents and reputation.   Stay up-to-date with the newest, most reliable technology, and protect yourself from the ever-increasing threat of malicious outside attacks. For more information on how you can protect your company’s data call All Covered at 866-446-1133.

What’s at risk?

When your IT environment is insecure, you company is at risk on multiple levels.  Besides the obvious virus that replicates advertisements for knock-off designer hand bags every time you launch a program, you risk much more insidious and covert damage that could financially ruin your company.  Risks range from deletion of corporate data to exposure of proprietary client data to unapproved monitoring of financial transactions—when it comes to malicious attacks the sky’s the limit.

Protect yourself

Limit your company’s IT security threats by having your environment audited by security professionals on an annual basis.  An annual security assessment will ensure that the necessary defenses are in place to protect your IT environment.

A comprehensive security assessment will usually challenge the following components of your IT environment:

• External security- your firewall and other similar devices will be purposefully attacked.  A device that fails to block the attack is a security vulnerability that needs to be fixed.
• IT network- vulnerability scanning applications will be performed on your networked equipment.  Key concerns are un-patched, out-of-date, or misconfigured applications which put your IT environment at risk.
• Domain security settings- your business domain will be attacked to locate weak configurations which might put your business at risk.
• Wireless security- your wireless access points will be “sniffed.”  If access points are discovered, they will be attacked to test the network’s strength.

During a security assessment, other parts of your IT network will be examined:

• Logs- hardware and application logs need to be set up to detect security threats and notify system administrators whenever possible threats are detected.
• Email servers- improperly configured mail servers can be captured, used as spam servers, and ultimately, your business emails could be blacklisted.
• Security policy- a written security policy will ensure that your IT environment is not compromised through unapproved application installation or unapproved network activity and must be enforceable through security permissions applications.
• Defense in Depth- this final step in the security assessment will determine how many layers of security are available with your current network, and if needed, will also generate recommendations for additional security.

Next steps

IT security experts encourage that a security assessment be performed on an annual basis.  In the case of major network restructuring, another assessment might be a smart choice.  To learn more about security assessments and protect your company from becoming some predator’s next meal ticket, please contact the security experts at All Covered or call 866-446-1133.

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Malware consists of the following types of applications:

• Virus – an application that copies itself and infects a computer without the user’s knowledge. A virus spreads by attaching itself to documents or emails.
• Worm – an application that replicates itself by spreading across a computer network or the internet. Worms usually spread by finding programming faults in software applications to gain access to the operating system.
• Trojan Horse – an application that appears useful, but has the ulterior motive of downloading or installing another application to perform unapproved tasks like logging keystrokes, viewing documents, and remotely controlling your computer.
• Rootkit – an application that conceals itself by replacing parts of the operating system to avoid detection when a security program is run. Carefully hidden, the rootkit then runs any application that the programmer wants, giving the programmer full access to your computer. Rootkits are very hard to find, and even harder to get rid of.
• Spyware- an application designed to collect personal information about a user without their knowledge. Spyware can also redirect internet traffic, record keystrokes, and change internet settings.

The Best Way to Catch a Case of Malware

Each type of malware spreads in a unique way:

• Viruses are spread when a user sends an infected document to another user as an email attachment or by sharing the file on a disk or across the network.
• Worms spread across the network looking for un-patched computers and servers. As each machine is infected, the worm looks for new machines to infect, quickly infecting an entire network within minutes.
• Trojans, root kits, and spyware are frequently installed accidentally without the knowledge of the user-usually through internet downloads or through peer-to-peer networks.

Protect Your IT Systems

Educate yourself, your staff, your friends and family to be aware of possible malware threats:

• Don’t open email attachments from unfamiliar people.
• Don’t click on an unexpected link in an email unless you trust the sender Never install free software that you obtained from the internet.
• Never purchase online software from suspect sites where the offer is too good to be true.
• Always keep your computer systems software and operating system updated.
• Perform an in-depth security scan with an industry approved software program such as LanGuard or Nessus on a regularly scheduled basis to check for malware.

Too Little, Too Late

Sometimes, malware will slip by even the most vigilant user. Symptoms of a malware infection include:

• slow computer
• slow internet browsing
• unapproved redirection of your homepage
• random pop-up windows when connected to the internet
• Outlook is slow or starts emailing people without permission.
• malfunctioning instant messenger

Seek Professional Help

Getting help for your malware outbreak is less painful than going to the doctor’s office for your yearly checkup. All Covered’s technical engineers are familiar with all the tools and techniques needed to remove even the most malicious malware floating around. They can fix your current outbreak as well as get your IT systems up-to-date to help prevent a future outbreak.

Of course, you don’t need to wait for malware to seek preventative maintenance-All Covered is happy to help you protect your systems before you have any problems. To learn more about how to protect your network against malicious applications, please contact All Covered.

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1. Deny all traffic by default and only enable those ports, protocols, and services that are needed.
2. Disable or uninstall any unnecessary services and software on the firewall that are not specifically required.
3. Limit the number of applications that run on the firewall in order to let the firewall do what it’s best at doing. Consider running anti-virus, content filtering, VPN, DHCP, and authentication software on other dedicated systems behind the firewall.
4. If possible, run the firewall service as a unique user ID instead of administrator or root.
5. Set or change the default firewall administrator or root password before you ever connect it to the public Internet. It sounds too obvious, but it’s true — many firewall passwords are never set or changed from their default. Make it a long complex phrase that’d be very difficult to guess and ideally easy to remember. Change the password every 6-12 months or if it’s ever suspected to have been compromised.
6. Do not rely on packet filtering alone. Use stateful inspection and application proxies if possible.
7. If your firewall allows it, ensure that you’re filtering packets for correct source and destination addresses to keep malicious traffic from entering and leaving your network.
8. If a malicious user can obtain physical access to the firewall, anything can happen. Ensure that physical access to the firewall is controlled.
9. A lot of times, firewalls are doing less (or more) than what they should be doing based on your business needs and information flow requirements. Keep your firewall configuration as simple as possible and eliminate unneeded or redundant rules to ensure that the firewall is configured to support your specific needs.
10. Make sure the security rule set on the firewall remains consistent with the organizations written information security policy. Also, be sure not to confuse your firewall rule-base with your internal “security policy.” They’re not the same. The former is for the firewall and the latter is for internal dos and don’ts outlining “this is how we do things here.” You do have a security policy, don’t you?
11. Run the firewall on a hardened and routinely patched operating system. An insecure and non-hardened operating system can and will render the firewall useless.
12. Perform regular security tests against your firewall including any VPNs it’s hosting. Plug the holes when they’re discovered and must be tested on a consistent basis. In addition, the slightest firewall system or rule set modifications can completely change the firewall’s security capabilities. Perform system or rule set modifications can completely change the firewall’s security capabilities. Perform these tests on every interface of the firewall in all directions. Also, perform these tests with and without the firewall rules enabled to determine how vulnerable you will be when the firewall is not functioning properly.
13. Patch the firewall’s operating system and application software with the latest code on a regular basis. However, make sure you test these updates in a controlled, non-production timeframe or environment whenever possible.
14. Use firewalls internally to segment networks and permit access control based upon business needs.
15. Enable firewall logging and alerting if possible.
16. Use a secure remote syslog server that makes log modification and manipulation more difficult for a malicious attacker.
17. Regularly monitor the firewall logs. Treat the logs as business records and include them in your information retention policy.
18. Note any firewall log entries that don’t look right and investigate them immediately.
19. Periodically backup the firewall logs(preferably onto write-once media such as CD-R) and store for future reference and/or legal protection in the case of a breach that must be investigated.
20. Consider outsourcing your firewall management to a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) so analysis and intelligence, and also to save time and money focusing on your core business needs.
21. Use change-management practices for the firewall to approve changes needed, assess the reason(s) for the changes, document the changes made, and describe the necessary back-out procedures in case the changes fail.
22. Perform ongoing audits, at least yearly, on the firewall to compare what you say you’re doing in your security policy with what’s actually being done and to ensure adherence to any government regulations that pertain to your organization. This can be done manually, or ideally, using a tool such as Karalon’s TrafficIQ Pro (www.karalon.com).
23. Require that all remote computers run personal firewall/intrusion prevention software. Firewalls can be easily circumvented if using wireless network systems internally, so it pays to have another layer of defense on your hosts. Make this something that cannot be easily disabled by users. No exceptions.
24. Constantly monitor (or subscribe to) your firewall vendor’s security bulletins.
25. Regularly backup the firewall configuration files and keep the backup offsite.
26. Remember that firewalls most likely won’t be able to prevent attacks that originate from inside your network. An acceptable usage policy, personal firewalls/intrusion prevention software, network monitoring, content filtering, and access controls on all hosts can help lower these risks.

NOTICE: The information contained herein is considered best practices for securing firewalls but may not constitute a secure firewall if implemented. Each firewall and its associated information systems are unique; therefore, these recommendations may not be completely suitable for your situation. Like any changes should be handled, please test these in a non-production environment first to ensure interoperability within your network.

About the Author

As founder and principal consultant of Principle Logic, LLC, Kevin Beaver has over 18 years of experience in IT and specializes in information security. Before starting his own information security services business in 2001, Kevin served in various information technology and security roles for several healthcare, e-commerce, financial, and educational institutions. As an independent information security consultant, noted author, public speaker, and expert witness, Kevin focuses his work solely on performing information security assessments.

The more benign spyware and adware simply monitors and tracks the sites you visit on the web so that companies can determine the web-surfing habits of their users and try to pinpoint their marketing efforts. However, many forms of spyware go beyond simple tracking and actually monitor keystrokes and capture passwords and other functions which cross the line and pose a definite security risk.

How can you protect yourself from these insidious little programs? Ironically, many users unwittingly agree to install these programs. In fact, removing some spyware and adware might render some freeware or shareware programs useless. Below are 5 easy steps you can follow to try to avoid and, if not avoid, at least detect and remove these programs from your computer system:

• Be Careful Where You Download: Unscrupulous programs often come from unscrupulous sites. If you are looking for a freeware or shareware program for a specific purpose try searching reputable sites like tucows.com or download.com.
• Read the EULA: What is an EULA you ask? End User License Agreement. It’s all of the technical and legal gibberish in that box above the radio buttons that say “No, I do not accept” or “Yes, I have read and accept these terms”. Most people consider this a nuisance and click on “yes” without having read a word. The EULA is a legal agreement you are making with the software vendor. Without reading it you may be unwittingly agreeing to install spyware or a variety of other questionable actions that may not be worth it to you. Sometimes the better answer is “No, I do not accept.”
• Read Before You Click: Sometimes when you visit a web site a text box might pop up. Like the EULA, many users simply consider these a nuisance and will just click away to make the box disappear. Users will click “yes” or “ok” without stopping to see that the box said “would you like to install our spyware program?” Ok, admittedly they don’t generally come out and say it that directly, but that is all the more reason you should stop to read those messages before you click “ok”
• Protect Your System: Antivirus software is somewhat misnamed these days. Viruses are but a small part of the malicious code these programs protect you from. Antivirus has expanded to include worms, trojans, vulnerability exploits, jokes and hoaxes and even spyware and adware. If your antivirus product doesn’t detect and block spyware you can try a product like AdAware Pro which will protect your system from spyware or adware in real time.
• Scan Your System: Even with antivirus software, firewalls and other protective measures some spyware or adware may eventually make it through to your system. While a product like AdAware Pro mentioned in step #4 will monitor your system in real time to protect it, AdAware Pro costs money. The makers of AdAware Pro, Lavasoft, also have a version available for free for personal use. AdAware will not monitor in real time, but you can manually scan your system periodically to detect and remove any spyware. Another excellent choice is Spybot Search & Destroy which is also available for free.

If you follow these five steps you can keep your system protected from spyware proactively and detect and remove any that does manage to get into your system. Good luck!

With Internet accessible “listening” services such as IM running from inside an organization, these applications are increasingly being targeted by hackers and spammers. The spate of recent vulnerabilities within IM clients by all the significant vendors leaves integrity and confidentiality of corporate information at risk – potentially allowing any data a trusted employee can access to also become accessible to a hacker, abusing flaws in the IM client application.

Without proper management of an IM environment, uncontrolled installation of consumer-grade messaging clients may make an organization vulnerable to the following security issues:

1. Client Vulnerabilities – Just like many other software applications, IM clients have a history of common security vulnerabilities. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities may take the form of denials of service (e.g. maximum network bandwidth utilization and workstation crashes), “bother-ware” notifications and nuisances threatening productivity, access to unauthorized host data, or complete host compromise and subsequent loss of data integrity.
2. Insecure Network Traffic – Typically, the corporate networking environment is protected by a perimeter defense system (e.g. Firewalls, IDS/IPS, content filtering, anti-virus, etc.) that is supposed to block all malicious network activity initiated outside the network. IM clients effectively perforate the firewall and provide an alternate conduit for viruses, spam and other unauthorized files.
3. Open Connections – When engaging in file transfers, voice chat, or other file sharing activities, the IM client reveals the users true IP address. With this information a malicious user may concentrate on the host system for the purpose of hacking in to it or as a target for a denial of service attack.
4. Identity Theft – IM clients commonly use little or no encryption for the transmission of login credentials. Guides exist on the Internet providing best advice on how to intercept and capture this. Stolen credentials can thus be easily used to impersonate someone else.
5. Data Theft – The ability to tunnel through perimeter defenses makes for an efficient method of transferring confidential materials out of an organization. Internal users may use IM clients to transfer binary data such as customer databases and development source code to external contacts without alerting internal security or audit teams. With some IM clients, this may be achieved inadvertently through poor configuration of file sharing services.
6. Loss of Privacy – The common failure to implement any form of encryption of the data means that all messages must travel in the clear, meaning that an observer can easily intercept and read this information. In the case where non peer-to-peer connections are made, all messages must travel to a central server before being forwarded to the recipient where they may be logged and stored (note that users within the same office may be unaware that their traffic is being routed over the Internet). Similarly, the message recipient may also log and store this information for later use.
7. Absent Authentication – As each user may choose their own identity, there is no guarantee that the message recipient is genuinely who they claim to be. An employee may think that they are messaging a work colleague, while in actuality he is communicating with a competitor. In addition, because these online identities are not created or managed by the organizations IT department, tracking messages to an actual person within the organization may prove to be very difficult.
8. Social Engineering – The informal nature of the communication medium lends itself to common social engineering techniques and trust relationships. Users may be tricked into disclosing confidential business information, compromising the security of their own system, and sending or receiving unauthorized content (e.g. pornography, internal documents, etc.).

The consequences of these security threats may also be more subtle. Within heavily regulated industries such as financial services and health care, IM carries a high potential for liability. Many industries are required by law to regulate and safeguard the flow of confidential information. In the USA for instance, to comply with SEC, HIPAA and NASD requirements, organizations are required to record all customer interactions for possible future review.

Without centralized management of IM services, organizations cannot guarantee that all communications are recorded in an appropriate manner. Undocumented communications regarding personal data may occur without the organizations knowledge – leading to a breach of access requirements – possibly invoking heavy fines or legal action.

Excerpted from Windowsecurity.com/Instant Messenger Security: Securing Against the Threat of Instant Messenger by Gunter Ollmann. Copyright 2001-2005 Gunter Ollmann