In July, 2008 ProcessOne, an instant messaging (IM) supplier, released a report that showed nearly 88 percent of IT directors in the UK were concerned with security risks from public IM and 72% had banned its use for this reason. Before deciding to eliminate IM altogether, learn what the risks are and how to limit the enterprise's vulnerability.
Private IM: The Alternative to Going Public
The main difference between public and private IM is the server on which they run. Public IM applications have public servers that clients access through the internet anywhere in the world, while private IM applications run on an organization's server that clients access through its intranet. This difference affects the following features: