Symantec Corp announce instant messaging security

After a Symantec Corp survey found IM the weakest link when it comes to business protection – the global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions have announced the availability of Symantec Instant Messaging Security.cloud with support for Microsoft Lync.

“IM is becoming a popular tool for internal and external communications in organisations of every size,” said Tom Powledge, vice president of Product Delivery, Symantec.cloud. “According to Symantec Intelligence, one in 11.3 links are sent over IM link to malicious web sites while our Symantec Instant Messaging survey revealed that fewer than half of the organisations surveyed have suitable controls for monitoring IM.

“The casual nature of IM paired with a tendency to de-prioritise IM security leaves organisations susceptible to compliance breaches, data loss and malware infection.”

The study found IM poses a significant risk to organisations with approximately 60 percent of respondents using IM to communicate with outside contacts, 43 percent sharing unrelated content and 29 percent sending information without management approval.

Symantec is one of the first SaaS vendors to support Microsoft Lync users, with the IMS.cloud designed to check every IM passing through an organisation.

Using Symantec’s proven technology, software that protects against more risks at more points, Skeptic™ Malware Protection scans messages and file attachments for malware and the blocking of malicious URLs.

Despite IM tools continuing to improve company productivity and help build business relationships, without appropriate security and control measures the International Data Corporation believe organisations can be exposed to security and legal risks through external contacts.

“Instant Messaging in the workplace is becoming ubiquitous for both internal and external communications in organisations of every size,” said Chris Christiansen, vice president of Security Products and Services, IDC. “But this popularity is one reason why organisations are vulnerable to the risks that come with using desktop IM clients.

“Corporate IM needs the same high levels of malware protection and regulatory compliance required of email and web services. Cloud-based security services can provide such protection.”

Symantec say further benefits of their new creation include an effective content control engine plus automatic message logging and configurable disclaimers.

IMS.cloud ensures organisations are safe from data loss and logs messages for compliance purposes without the need for additional hardware or software.

All messages are matched against an organisation’s acceptable use policy, ensuring any suspicious communication is automatically blocked with immediate user notification.

Meeting regulatory compliance by logging message transcripts, cloud-based archiving is available for organisations with more stringent compliance needs.

Now available worldwide, Symantec say the IMS.cloud can be purchased individually or in combination with other Symantec.cloud services across email and web.