Secure Web IM Appliances (IronIM)
Instant Messaging (IM) presents enterprises with a completely new set of threats to network security, bandwidth availability and program compatibility. Instant messaging’s always-on nature, lack of monitoring tools, known vulnerabilities and multiple available protocols make it a prime target for hackers and others with unscrupulous intentions. To help enterprises combat these threats, Secure Computing® developed the IronIM™ instant messaging security appliance.
Instant Messaging (IM) has penetrated 90% of North American businesses, with over 80 million users logging on every day in organizations around the world. The real-time, interactive nature of IM makes it a valuable tool for collaborative efforts with business partners, customers, and fellow employees. However, due to the consumer-oriented beginnings of the technology, IM has developed without the typical enterprise emphasis on manageability, reliability and security, leaving it vulnerable to attack.
In order to effectively combat the security threats presented by IM and ensure its manageability and reliability, Secure Computing developed the IronIM® secure Instant Messaging gateway appliance.
- Support for All Public IM Protocols: Protects conversations over public IM protocols such as AOL Instant MessengerTM, MSN MessengerTM and Yahoo! MessengerTM; and corporate IM solutions such as Microsoft LCS and IBM SameTime. Protection is provided without the need for software installation on end-user machines.
- Support for LCS and SameTime: IronIM customers who use Microsoft Live Communication Server (LCS) or Lotus SameTimeTM for internal IM can monitor all messages flowing across the internal network. These messages can be easily retrieved from the IronIM appliance using simple search functionality.
- Corporate ID registration & mapping: IronIM can access the corporate LDAP directory and map IM identities (screen names) to corresponding corporate LDAP names. IronIM requires every IM user on the network to register with the IronIM appliance prior to communicating through the IM protocol.
- Traffic Encryption: IronIM's patent-pending encryption technology automatically encrypts intra-company and IronIM-protected inter-company conversations, files and content without requiring end-user involvement.
- anti-virus Support for File Transfers: IronIM scans files being transferred across IM using the Authentium anti-virus engine sitting on the appliance, allowing file transfers to take place without concern for infections of end-user machines or any other network elements.
- Flexible Policy Administration: IronIM provides an easy-to-use GUI interface that allows administrators to set and enforce defined corporate policies on a company-wide, LDAP group, or per-user level. Administrators can also determine which IM protocols should be allowed or blocked, whether IM file transfers should be permitted, and whether advanced features like voice, video, and games should be allowed or disallowed.
- Complete Archiving: IronIM monitors and logs all Instant Messaging traffic, including entire conversations; archives can be sent to third-party storage solutions on demand. Via IronIM's easy-to-use interface, administrators can set archiving policies and search for old content.
- Hardened Gateway Appliance: Built on the proven operating system that powers the IronMail® gateway appliance, IronIM is designed from the ground-up with a focus on enterprise-grade security to withstand external attacks.
