Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing is the fastest-growing application on the Web. Employees install P2P applications to download music, movies, images and software – all free of charge. Additionally, more than 84% of all organizations have some form of unsecured public Instant Messaging (IM) service, including AOL, MSN, Yahoo and ICQ running on their networks. Public IM gives an organization the advantage of “presence,” which improves work efficiency, customer service and productivity while reducing long distance costs. However, because these “rogue protocols” rely on external servers to exchange data, there are significant security risks associated with their use.

The public servers through which IM and P2P data travel do not scan for viruses, leaving an open door to hackers to introduce worms and other viruses that can spread rapidly throughout a corporate network. The most recent example of this type of attack was the Fizzer Worm, which
spread via KaZaA using public IM applications. Despite efforts to bolster firewalls and block ports, employees can easily send plain text files of sensitive corporate data to external sources without leaving a trace of the file transfer. Or, outsiders can easily “pose” as corporate IM users to obtain sensitive and proprietary information.

Because these “rogue protocols” are not standardized and are constantly changing, they are nearly impossible to stop. Security assistance is available via IM & P2P management software, including products offered by Akonix. These products easily integrate with existing hardware and software and provide a centralized repository for data storage, search and retrieval through which administrators can track usage and alter policies as needed. Furthermore, these private-to-public gateway managers provide the most logical and intelligent solutions for reducing the risks related to the rising use of IM and P2P in the corporate environment. Akonix server based software even offers a dynamic update service for these ever-changing protocols to eliminate the “cat and mouse” game.