Instant Messaging posing new legal problems

www.geek.com ^ | 4:25pm EST Fri Oct 17 2003 | J. Eric Smith

[js1138]

posted 4:25pm EST Fri Oct 17 2003 - submitted by J. Eric Smith NEWS

If you're like millions of other PC and Mac users worldwide, you've discovered the wonderful utility of instant messaging in one form or another. The digital equivalent of the venerable CB radio, instant messaging, or "IM" for short, allows you to instantly converse with another IM subcriber over a corporate network or the Internet, anytime, anywhere, for free. And that's a problem, say legal experts.

At the top of the list of problems is the concept of corporate communications. For years companies have been bound by varying legal regulations to hold onto e-mail for a certain number of months or years (or indefinitely) in case these records ever need to be subpoenaed. Paper documents have been under such regulations for more than half a century; but what about IM? Suppose a corporate executive wishes to conduct an "off the record" conversation with his financial officer via IM. Such a conversation would be untraceable via most current IM technologies, yet evidence vital to some future legal proceeding could be contained within that same communication.

This legal problem runs smack into the recently-passed Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which requires all pertinent conversations to be recorded. Even worse, corporate espionage can be conducted discreetly through IM channels, and there's little the I.T. department can do about it short of blocking those services entirely.

Numerous companies are stepping forward to address this problem. Microsoft will shortly announce a new version of its corporate Windows Messenger service that will allow recording and archiving of all IM conversations. Other vendors are expected to follow suit. It is as yet unknown whether or not the large, free IM services like Yahoo! Instant Messenger or AOL Instant Messenger will implement any sort of recording options.

[KantianBurke]

-shrugs shoulders- well then I guess they'll just use a phone for all their talks. There are laws against tape recording on phones are there not?

[Koblenz]

I think IM is like talking. When a CFO and CEO talk in a meeting, this isn't normally recorded.

[js1138]

I guess it depends on how paranoid your company is. A few years ago, before there were good, cheap and effective firewalls, we simply didn't allow IM.

[FreePaul]

Suppose a corporate executive wishes to conduct an "off the record" conversation...

Well then he will just have to go down the hall and stick his head in the door and talk. Unless the FBI already has everyone bugged that conversation probably won't be recorded. I suspect that anyone in a company who claimed to have taken action as the result of a no longer existing IM would look pretty stupid.

[js1138]

This is an interesting site. They also have this:

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Oct/gee20031017022240.htm

Just when I almost had enough AOL disks to build a new house.

[Rebelbase]

My company has gone to an IM called Ipswitch and records all messages on the server.

There is no way to print your messages without cutting and pasting into Word and you cannot view offline messages once they have been read.

Anyone out there know of a good IM software?

[Bon mots]

Have you heard of AIM SNIFF?? AIM chats can easily be monitored.

Click on the logo to go to the site. You can even download the app for free.

What is it???

AIM Sniff is a utility for monitoring and archiving AOL Instant Messenger messages across a network. You can either do a live dump (actively sniff the network) or read a PCAP file and parse the file for IM messages. You also have the option of dumping the information to a MySQL database, a flat file, STDOUT, or any combination of the three. AIM Sniff allows administrators to see how often users are chatting to monitor for abuse and you can also use AIM Sniff to monitor for cases of harassment or pirated software trading. It has been tested on FreeBSD, Linux, and OS X.

[big bad easter bunny]

MS Instant message allows you to archive all coversations, I do it myself.

[Michael Barnes]

Lotus's Sametime Connect is a fairly good client. My company uses it and the messaging transactions are logged.
I am hoping for a newer client where we can filetransfer eventually though.

[JerseyHighlander]

First, this article is a pump for an upcoming IM conference. Second, it's not really forward looking, the software answers to his posed questions are already available. Third, most of this software is freely available, hence no one can make money selling it.

That being said, there are dozens of small software companies with business app IM software packages. Many have full logging capabilities. LivePerson(LPSN) is a serious player in this field, as well as EGAN = eGain Communications Corp
KANA = Kana Software Inc
Pvt1 = RightNow Technologies, Inc.

As urban areas have increased wifi services, corporate employees are going to use personal wifi accounts on personal wifi messaging platforms(laptop,blackberry type device, cellphone) to communicate outside the corporate IT structure. Only the techno-ignorant, and lazy will be caught by Sorbane-Oxley through IM archives. Some will be victims of ignorance and corporate sabotage. It will make great news.

[zoso82t]

I use Gaim for my instant messaging. It's open source, and there's an easy to install Windows version. It allows all of your conversations to be in one tabbed window to help fight clutter. I am not sure about logging conversations, but I think it has the capability. Check it out.

[zoso82t]

I just checked around in the software, Gaim does have full logging capabilities.

[Scenic Sounds]

I was wondering when this was going to hit the fan. Documents can be kept, phone calls can be recorded, and e-mails can be archived, but IM conversations are essentially "real time" and untracked.

With enough microphones, we could also record all oral conversations, too, and keep them all in one large central data base. For protection, no one (aside from government employees) would have access to the information recorded without demonstrating a legitimate interest.

[justlurking]

I don't know if it will work with Ipswitch, but I use Trillian. The pro version ($25) retains all conversations in a log.

It works with Yahoo, AOL, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, and IRC.

[boris]

Trivia question: who invented the term "instant message" and in what context?

Hint1: it is not what you think.

Hint2: Alpha Ralpha.

--Boris