Appendix H: Glossary of Instant Messaging, E-Mail, Legal, Regulatory, and Technical Terms


Buddy List

Also known as a contact list. The list of individuals or buddies with whom an IM user communicates. Using presence detection, an IM user can tell whether or not a buddy is online and available to chat.

Business Record

Evidence of business activities, events, purchases, sales, personnel decisions, etc., that organizations retain because the information has ongoing evidentiary value. IM business records must be retained. [1]

Chat

Unlike e-mail, which allows the user to write a fairly lengthy message on a screen page, IM lends itself to the ongoing exchange of short sentences. Chat, in other words.

Client

The industry term for IM software. For example, many users have downloaded the AOL Instant Messenger client for external conversations with clients and other third parties. Some employees download the three leading consumer-grade clients from AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN to ensure that they are able to send an instant message to just about anyone at any time without software compatibility concerns.

Consumer-Grade IM

Free IM clients downloaded from the Internet. Consumer-grade, or personal, IM moves outside the organization’s firewall, across public networks, and through servers controlled by AOL, Yahoo!, and Microsoft.

Discovery

The method by which information and evidence are collected and produced for litigation. Parties on each side of a case exchange documents, take depositions, answer questions, take testimony, and exchange information that helps each party build its case and prepare for trial. Discovery prevents parties from being surprised by unexpected information, helps familiarize each side with facts and evidence prior to the proceeding, and helps prevent spoliation problems. [2]

Encryption

The process of scrambling text and other digital information to ensure privacy. Encryption is not a feature of consumer-grade IM. Encryption is possible with enterprise IM—as long as the sender and recipient share the same IM software. [3]

Enterprise IM

An authorized enterprise system that the organization installs to enable internal IM conversations among employees. The system is closed to external communications. Enterprise IM offers security features that personal, consumergrade IM can’t match. Enterprise IM systems include antivirus software; encryption capabilities; and the ability to monitor content, purge messages, retain business records, and archive instant messages, among other capabilities.

Filtering

The act of scanning and blocking messages that may violate the organization’s content policy or the content-related regulations of government and industry. The recommended approach is to draft written rules and policy first, then use policybased content filtering software to enforce your written guidelines.

Firewall

A software program or hardware that automatically reviews network traffic and either blocks or allows it to pass based upon content rules and policies. Firewalls typically sit between a private internal network and the Internet and are common tools for protecting internal networks and users from harmful content and malicious intrusion. [4]

When employees use consumer-grade IM tools, their messages travel across public networks, outside the organization’s firewall. The result: The organization is open to security breaches, and messages may be intercepted by cyberthieves and other malicious outsiders.

Gateway IM

Products that manage public IM traffic at the discretion of corporate IT. With gateway technology, employees are authorized to use personal IM clients, but all messages pass through the server-based gateway product. Management gains the ability to determine what consumer-grade IM clients are being used; to control user IDs; to monitor use; to filter content; to retain, archive, and purge messages; to block attachments; and to detect viruses, as well as to control other aspects of instant messaging.

Instant Messaging (IM)

A combination of the telephone, which facilitates conversations with multiple people in real time, and e-mail, which combines the speed of online communication with a written record of your conversation. IM is turbocharged e-mail, offering all the features and capabilities of e-mail—and more—at lightning speed.

Spim

The instant messaging equivalent of spam. Currently just an occasional irritant for users of consumer-grade IM, spim is likely to grow as spammers turn their attention to IM. Enterprise IM systems are immune from spim, since they limit outside access and prohibit delivery unless the recipient approves it.

Spoliation

The legal term for destruction of evidence, intentional or accidental. [5]

User ID

The name or ‘‘handle’’ IM users select to identify themselves to their buddies. User ID poses one of the biggest challenges facing the IM industry and users. With consumer-grade IM, users are free to establish their own IM personality and to use any name they wish. Using AOL Instant Messenger, for example, a competitor could use your corporate domain to create an IM user name that reads JDoeYourCompany. Another problem arises when employees using personal IM clients select inappropriate user IDs (HotMamma). The misuse and misappropriation of user names and domains raises concerns over authenticity (how do you really know who a message came from?) among other challenges. Employers are advised to combine written user ID policy with technology products that give the IT department some control over user IDs, enabling you to reserve your company and domain name and kick imposters off the system.

[1]Adapted from Nancy Flynn and Randolph Kahn, Esq., E-Mail Rules, New York, AMACOM, 2003.

[2]Ibid.

[3]Ibid.

[4]Ibid.

[5]Ibid.




Instant Messaging Rules. A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for Safe IM Communication
Instant Messaging Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policies, Security, and Legal Issues for Safe IM Communication
ISBN: 0814472532
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 241
Authors: Nancy Flynn

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