By Melanie Turek, Principal Research Analyst, Nemertes Research LLC

November 10, 2004

News from two leading IM gateway vendors highlight an issue Nemertes has long spotlighted: the need for secure IM systems in the enterprise.

FaceTime this week announced two security initiatives. The FaceTime Instant Response Security Team (FIRST) will make public documented countermeasures and give FaceTime customers automated product updates to immediately defend against the latest IM- and P2P-based attacks. This is significant; such services have long been in place to protect against e-mail threats, and it’s time they’re available for IM systems, too.

FaceTime’s other new service, Vulnerability Assessment Survey and Test (VAST), is designed to help IT managers identify and resolve network weaknesses that may render them vulnerable to IM and P2P attacks and employee misuse. It’s not unique—IMlogic has offered a similar service since September. And it serves as a powerful marketing tool for the vendor, which can use it to generate leads within companies that use the service, identify threats, and then look for tools to block them. But it offers companies a free, easy way to monitor their networks.

The complete Impact Analysis is available to Nemertes clients. For more information, please contact Chris Zimmerman at christine@nemertes.com