Norse Securities Uses IM Manager

OSLO, NORWAY—Norwegian broker/dealer Norse Securities has implemented IM Manager from vendor IMlogic, to ensure instant messaging (IM) compliance and the security of IM communications between brokers and clients, say officials at the firm.

The IMlogic deployment lets the firm "manage and record IM conversations, protect our users from IM viruses and worms entering our network, and prevent file transfers from leaving the system," says Joachim Sandvik, IT manager for Norse. IM Manager can be deployed to manage and archive IM traffic via IM networks such as AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, IBM Lotus Instant Messaging, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003/2005, Jabber, Antepo and others, according to IMlogic officials.

After implementing the system this past July, the platform has registered approximately 200,000 messages, Sandvik says. Nineteen brokers use IM platforms within the firm, and 45 IM users, overall, are registered on the IMlogic system, he says. Staff members use Microsoft's MSN Messenger, version 7, for IM at the firm.

Officials say the increasing volume of threats from viruses, worms and malware led to Norse Securities' concerns over the use of unmonitored IM. However, Sandvik points out that the firm has never been the victim of an attack via IM.

"Being able to control what users could send and receive through IM was important, as well as archiving messages," Sandvik says. He explains that the team of traders at Norse uses IM to support phone and e-mail conversations, while the IT team uses IM primarily to communicate with suppliers.

Jon Sakoda, chief technology officer (CTO) at IMlogic, says that financial institutions are worried about several compliance and security issues around IM. "A large percentage of personnel in financial institutions use IM, and this is generally done over public networks such as AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger," he says. He cites risks such as virus attacks and phishing—where imposters try to extract sensitive information—as reasons that firms are considering IM security. IM Manager also covers private networks such as Reuters Messenger.

According to Sakoda, the solution includes a browser-based rules engine by which a firm can input its own compliance policy. Regular updates with new virus signatures and IM protocols ensure that it captures all IM traffic.

After evaluating various IM archiving and security solutions from other IM vendors, the firm chose IM Manager, according to Sandvik. Reasons cited for the decision were the ease of implementation and use of the system, and its compatibility with the firm's own Microsoft Windows 2003 operating system.