Filtering, Archiving, and Monitoring IM Traffic


Exchange doesn’t include any features for inspecting IM traffic. Although this is understandable in light of the messaging environment at the time the product was designed, many organizations have legal or operational requirements to inspect this traffic, so a lively third-party market for IM management tools has sprung up.

Note

Before you buy or install any of these monitoring products, make sure your users know that they’re subject to monitoring. One way to do it is this: use your firewall to block outbound access for all IM services as described earlier, then turn it on only for those users that fill out a Web form indicating that they know they might be monitored.

The simplest class of tools can be thought of like a network intrusion detection system (IDS). These products watch for IM traffic and alert you when someone’s trying to use IM, inbound or outbound. Of course, you can get some of the same information from watching the IIS server logs on your IM servers; however, if you want evidence that particular IM systems are being used, these tools might be useful to you.

A step up are the logging and archival tools, like Akonix’s L7 (http:// www.akonix.com), Cordant’s IMscribe (http://www.cordant.com), and IMlogic’s IM Manager (http://www.imlogic.com). These tools allow you to archive some or all of the IM traffic transiting your network; the more sophisticated products store the traffic itself, along with traffic-analysis information, in a relational database so that you can easily make queries to find out who said what to whom, and when.

Do you need one of these products? It depends. Government agencies, financial services firms, health-care providers, pharmaceutical firms, or other entities that operate in regulated environments might be legally obligated to either turn off IM or use an archiving and filtering product. Most other organizations can dispense with these solutions, although it can certainly be useful to have the capability to monitor and audit IM usage.




Secure Messaging with Microsoft Exchange Server 2000
Secure Messaging with Microsoft Exchange Server 2000
ISBN: 735618763
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 169

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