The Insider's Guide to Business and IT Agility
By Andre Yee, CTO, NFR Security , 03/18/2004
Print this article
Email this article
Talk Back!
Write to Editor
Just in case you failed to notice, the ubiquity of instant messaging (IM) among home users is making an impact in the corporate environment as well. The analyst firm IDC projects that roughly half of the 506 million IM users in 2006 will be corporate users.
This rapid adoption of corporate IM is changing the nature of communications at work. Corporate users find the interactive nature of IM communication particularly useful for open collaborative discussions. Yet, with all its benefits, IM offers a unique challenge to the corporate security manager. Initial attempts by corporate security departments to ban or limit its use have been met with user pushback. For many organizations, IM is now a low cost productivity and collaborative tool that is integral to the work environment. The reality is that corporate IM is here to stay and security managers must learn to deal with its implications.
Why Is Instant Messaging a Security Priority?
Why does the use of IM in the corporate environment pose such security challenges? There are a few noteworthy reasons. First, today’s extended IM functionality opens the enterprise to a wide variety of threats. Unlike the purely text-based IM transmissions of five years ago, IM users today may link audio, video and file attachments to message transmissions. As such, IM may be exploited as a means for launching and propagating malicious attacks such as worms or trojans. Many perpetrated attacks in the recent past have taken advantage of e-mail as a means of launching malicious code. Infection is often initiated when the user clicks on an attachment or embedded URL. With IM’s extended capability for attachments as well as embedding URLs, hackers can exploit IM in a similar fashion.
Second, corporate IT organizations are still playing catch up with regard to secure IM policies. Many security teams have been slow in responding to this proliferation of IM. The use of IM has thus far been unregulated in many organizations and hence poorly managed. Often, users may be running older versions of IM clients that could be vulnerable to exploits. In some cases, there is no patch management policy is in place for IM since it’s not an “official” corporate application. Users are often uneducated with regard to the risks associated with IM. Besides the risks of malicious code attachments, unintiated users may treat IM as a secure communication medium when in fact IM communication is primarily unencrypted and can be read off the wire.
1
ROUNDTABLE: Stretch Your Budget with smart SOA Governance-A Look at Successful Case Studies
ROUNDTABLE: Open Source Market Update
Insurance: Explore how SOA & BPM are driving down expenses and improving ROI
ebizQ is very interested in what you have to say. To contribute an article, an opinion, or to become a blogger, please contact Peter Schooff.
You need Adobe Flash Player 9 to view this widget.
June 3, 2009
One of the most compelling trends in the enterprise business technology space over the past year has been the emergence of cloud computing. In ebizQ’s upcoming Qcamp virtual un-conference, leading industry experts and practitioners will explore the role of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) in supporting cloud-computing initiatives. Additionally, the new skills that developers and IT managers need for successful cloud development will be discussed.Register
Date: Aug 26, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM
ET- (16:00 GMT)
Date: Sep 30, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM
ET- (16:00 GMT)
Date:Aug 26, 2009
Time:12:00 PM
ET- (16:00 GMT)
Date:Sep 30, 2009
Time:12:00 PM
ET- (16:00 GMT)
Read this Forrester report to see how vendors stack up regarding business process management. Forrester evaluated eight business process management...
Download Now
In part two of Joe McKendrick's recent podcast with Miko Matsumura, chief strategist for Software AG, they talk about how SOA and IT systems need to change and grow and adapt with the organization around it.
Listen Now
Phil Wainewright interviews David Vap, VP of products at RightNow Technologies, and finds out how sharing best practices can help businesses understand how best to engage with online communities.
Listen Now
Scott Hebner, Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for IBM Rational, discusses a topic on the top of every company's mind today: getting the most from IT investments.
Listen Now
In BI, this tough economy and the increasing role of Web 2.0 and MDM are certainly topics on people's minds today. WiseAnalytics' Lyndsay Wise addresses each of them in this informative podcast.
Listen Now
Deepak Singh, President and CTO of Adeptia, joins ebizQ's Dennis Byron in a podcast that gets its hand around the trend of industry-specific BPM.
Listen Now
From Dennis Byron: For BPM to fit at the top of the stack, it can't merely support workflow or integration. It needs to integrate the BI aspects of the stack, too. Learn More
In the insurance industry, companies have accepted that systems, strategies and data all developed in silos are making it difficult for them to grow and adjust to today’s market demands. The obstacles imposed by siloed approaches are painfully obvious to companies as they try to gain a better understanding of their customers and meet the growing constraints imposed by compliance and regulatory requirements. Leveraging industry standards with full data integration is one was to tackle this challenge. Learn More
From Dennis Byron: Is it better to choose one strain of BPM over another? The answer is unique to your organization. Learn More
Can decision management really deliver costs savings, agility and happy customers on a consistent basis? Learn More
From Dennis Byron: BPM products optimized for case management might be the products that bridge the extremes in my view of the BPM spectrum. Learn More
Integrating BPM and CEP gives you intelligent business processes that can react to rapidly changing business conditions with continuous visibility. Learn More
Insurers need to think about creating "true linkage," which means linking business strategy to process to IT investments and thereby setting the foundation for true change. Learn More
To be effective, business intelligence technology must work behind the scenes to deliver relevant information when, where, and how it's needed. Learn More
A lot of people are talking about Enterprise 2.0 as being the business application of Web 2.0 technology. However, there's still some debate on exactly what this technology entails, how it applies to today's business models, and which components bring true value. Some use the term Enterprise 2.0 exclusively to describe the use of social networking technologies in the enterprise, while others use it to describe a web economy platform, or the technological framework behind such a platform. Still others say that Enterprise 2.0 is all of these things. Learn More
Smart event processing can help your company run smarter and faster. This comprehensive guide helps you research the basics of complex event processing (CEP) and learn how to get started on the right foot with your CEP project using EDA, RFID, SOA, SCADA and other relevant technologies. Learn More
To Michael: To select what has to be improved (e.g. automated), a...
Hi Johan,
thank you for such prompt response.
I...
Phil,
It appears that Google is looking at the world...
I believe work has been done in this area privately for some time....
I wonder if BPM has become more popular because many solutions...
We are looking for a FileNET admin/developer in Houston, TX. The...
As we see more companies consider the cloud we should be...
Scott,
I agree that process management is good way for...
|
|
|
|
