Organisations fear network security threats from Instant Messaging - report

Over half of organisations believe that Instant Messaging (IM) improves overall communications, but 68% are concerned or very concerned about the potential security threats of the technology, according to the results of research by analyst firm Osterman Research.

The concern about the potential security threats from viruses, worms and spyware is largely due to the well-publicised nature of the growing number of IM threats that have affected IM systems. The number of threats so far in 2005 is higher than for all of 2004, said the president of Osterman Research.

The results also showed that 52% of organisations are using IM for business applications although 75% of companies surveyed had not yet settled on one or more product as an IM standard. Most popular IM clients remained AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, with Google Talk already present in a significant percentage of the surveyed organisations. Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing (Sametime) continues to be the leading enterprise IM system in use, with Microsoft Live Communication Server steadily increasing its market penetration.