Managed service to make IM secure

Ensuring that instant messaging cannot be hacked into could be a new revenue stream for resellers

Email security vendor Postini has launched a managed service for instant messaging (IM) security, which it has claimed will provide resellers with additional revenue.

“IM is incredibly widespread now – an estimated 85 per cent of businesses have IM users. However, hackers are cottoning on to IM, which can transmit worms faster than email, so businesses need to start thinking about security for their IM. It doesn’t make sense to slam the door shut on email viruses but open it to IM viruses,” said Andrew Lockhart, senior director of product marketing at Postini.

The vendor said its Perimeter Manager for IM uses the company’s proxy architecture and Active Policy Management Framework.

“We decided to introduce a service for IM security because our customers had been asking for it. Resellers can sell it as a managed service. There are very few competitive products out there for IM – we’re the only managed service available,” Lockhart claimed.

The US vendor only opened its UK office in January but has already signed up 13 resellers.

“We spent the first six months of the year recruiting VARs, so now we will shift our focus to really supporting them. In December we’re going to launch an archiving service for email. Our customers need to maintain certain emails for their records and it can be hard and expensive to install the relevant software. We’ll provide it as a managed service,” Lockhart said.

Nick Garlick, managing director of VAR Nebulas Security, said: “We signed up with Postini in January and are now able to say to customers that we can take care of their entire integrated message management. With the launch of the IM security service and the archiving service later in the year, Postini is taking security to a level well beyond its competitors’.”