Instant Messaging = Instant Danger, warns BWCS

26^th October  2005, Ledbury,UK: The tremendous growth of Instant Messaging in the workplace is opening up dangerous gaps in enterprise security, argues a new expert guide from BWCS "Secure Instant Messaging in Business".

"Employees are using what was once the unregulated, insecure, plaything of teenagers to provide highly-efficient communication systems at work and this is proving a nightmare for IT departments," argues report author Symon Blomfield. "Companies are already under pressure to comply with new business regulations and the adoption, partly by stealth, of IM has added enormously to their headaches."

"There is a grave danger that companies are embracing this medium, perhaps without even realizing that they are, without developing sufficient safeguards," reports Blomfield. "Without proper security measures, companies can be left unacceptably vulnerable."

The new BWCS expert guide, Secure Instant Messaging in Business, published today, is designed to help counter this threat by assisting companies to develop best practice in implementing Secure IM.

BWCS CEO, Graham Wilde says "Instant messaging at work is growing very large, very quickly - research shows that some 28 million business users will send around one billion instant messages every day this year. Nearly 80% of these will be sent at companies where only public IM services are used, such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo!, exposing these companies to security risks."

Wilde continues, "This is a huge new field of communications and it has been opened up at precisely the time that new regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley rules in the US, the EU's 8th Directive, and the regulations of national regulators like the FSA in the UK, have appeared ordering that regulated companies must not allow communications which cannot be recorded and retrieved. Huge efforts are being made to monitor and store e-mail and voice communications in order to comply with these rules, but IM has opened up yet another channel of communication. It is a problem that businesses must get a grip of very quickly to avoid security breaches and possible law-suits," warns Wilde.

The BWCS guide, Secure Instant Messaging in Business, is a hands-on, clearly structured business guide by a leading authority in the field. It is produced in association with leading IT specialist law firm Olswang and secure IM provider NewVoiceMedia. In plainly written language, the handbook explains how IM and secure IM systems work, what the key business drivers are for their take-up, and explores the main vendors and their solutions. It has sections on how to establish working teams, set goals and embrace the needs of key stakeholders. Olswang guides the user through the high level legal parts of the jigsaw in a specially written section of the handbook. And a thorough section on compliance explains the implications of Sarbanes-Oxley, the EU and FSA regulations on corporate IM.

ENDS

Secure Instant Messaging in Business will be published by BWCS on 31st October 2005.

For further details please e-mail Ross.Parsons@bwcs.com  
Tel: +44 (0) 7855 155 393

About BWCS

BWCS is a consultancy that advises on how to turn technologies into business. For users of technology we offer clear insight into how to get the best from new and existing IT and telecoms systems. For vendors of IT and telecoms hardware, software and services we advise on how to turn technologies into business and consumer benefits for your customers.

BWCS also publishes a range of "How-to" guides. These books have been sold to senior executives at major companies in over 100 countries throughout the world.

Each of these guides is written in a user-friendly format designed to take you through complex processes and systems with a specialist leading the way.

For more information please go to www.BWCS.com

About the Authors

Symon Blomfield is a leading entrepreneur and technical authority in the area of Secure IM. Symon formed his first company, advertising agency SPA Creative, in 1984 in London and has since spent over 20 years at the leading edge of communications. He founded 4eNetworking in 1994 working for major clients primarily in telecoms and IT, including BT, Nortel and Motorola.

From the mid-1990s Symon took a keen interest in the dynamics of new web-based communications such as IM and Web Meeting, pioneering ideas for secure presence-based services several years ahead of the market. Convinced that Instant Messaging and the whole concept of 'presence' was going mainstream, he raised Private Equity funding in 2002 to design and build a Secure IM platform.

Now fully developed, the IM Networker Platform has been acquired by NewVoiceMedia. Symon has joined NewVoiceMedia as Director of Presence Network Sales.

Founded in the UK in 1981, Olswang is one of the leading legal advisers in the areas of digital convergence, multimedia, on-line services, telecommunications, intellectual property, information technology and the Internet.

NewVoiceMedia is a leading provider of network-based communications solutions. Its offerings include the IM Networker Platform and ground-breaking intelligent telephony solutions based on PSTN and VoIP. Its solutions are used for mainstream and business continuity communications by numerous major clients including the BBC, Parcelforce Worldwide, lastminute.com, and Fuji Photo Film. For more information visit http://www.newvoicemedia.com/.