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Is Instant Messaging a threat to your network?

How popular is Instant Messaging (IM)?

Instant Messaging (IM) is becoming one of the fastest growing communications tools.
"IM is being used in more than 84% of organizations, expected to increase to 93% by end of year 2003".

"Client security bugs including buffer overflow problems: Such problems expose vulnerabilities that could range from denial of service to execution of arbitrary code".
Malware in Transferred files: IM clients find alternative open ports when the defaults are blocked- an attractive feature that hackers like to exploit.
Identity Theft, Hijacking, and Social Engineering: As IM Clients do not support strong authentication techniques, it is very easy to steal someone else's identity.

Mitigating IM Risks

Some companies adopt the hard line stance of not allowing IM on their networks.
A clearly stated policy for IM use.
Those corporations who choose to allow IM must also adopt a strong monitoring stance.
Whether a corporation wishes to allow IM or not, the common denominator solution calls for advanced monitoring of IM.

Real-Time IM Detection- with integrated signature and anomaly detection.
Post-Event IM Detection- using NetDetector analysis, string-search, and IM session reconstruction capabilities.
IM Traffic Recording- onto NetDetector's large-scale storage solution, for future reference.
IM Archiving- NetDetector can also automatically archive IM traffic to other forms of storage for long-term offline archiving.

Click here to download your free copy of the white paper "NetDetector: Identifying Real Threats and Securing Your Network"