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IM Gateway
Overview
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Global Relay's IM Gateway is designed to provide the secure connection and capture of all public and enterprise IM conversations. The IM Gateway securely captures IM chat sessions from AOL, MSN, ICQ & Yahoo, as well as Microsoft's LCS, IBM's Sametime/Lotus and Reuters Messaging, amongst others. The IM Gateway then routes a copy of each message to the IM Interpreter for import into the Message Archiver to provide compliance with industry and government regulations and corporate policies. IM Gateway ensures perimeter security, monitoring, archiving, audit trails and message threads.
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Through its technology partnership with Akonix, Global Relay incorporates the Akonix L7 Enterprise Security Server as an integral component the IM Gateway hosted messaging service. The Akonix L7 Enterprise Security Servers provide secure and controlled access to public IM Networks and enterprise IM systems. The Akonix L7 Enterprise Security Servers are fully-managed by Global Relay and seamlessly integrated with Global Relay's IM Interpreter, Message Archiver & Compliance Reviewer.
Akonix Messaging Partnerships
Akonix Messaging Partnerships ensure that Global Relay's IM Gateway is certified to work with all the major public IM networks and enterprise IM systems to provide multi-network management, security, integration and compliance capabilities across all major IM systems, including AOL's AIM and ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, Microsoft's Live Communications Server (LCS), Reuters Messaging, Bloomberg® Messaging, IBM Lotus Instant Messaging (formerly Sametime) and Jabber.
IM Gateway Features
- commercially-licensed access to AOL, MSN, ICQ & Yahoo public networks and LCS, Sametime etc.
- blocking of IM viruses, worms and other attacks in real-time
- filtering of spam over IM (SPIM) through auto policies and blacklists
- automatic updates of spam over IM (SPIM) & malware filters via Akonix Security Center
- user identity management of public networks, LCS & Sametime
- message capture technology with Disclaimer on initial message to recipient
- flexible access control by user, group and domain to enforce Chinese walls
- flexible keyword & pattern (such as SSN) filtering to enforce real-time appropriate use of IM
- file transfer control by user and file type & virus scanning of file transfers
- encrypted and protected message logs
- seamless integration with Message Archiver including WORM storage and audit trails for compliance
IM Compliance
Instant Messaging, if used for business, is now subject to the same stringent compliance archiving, monitoring, security and privacy regulations that are applicable to email. This includes both public IM (such as AOL, MSN, ICQ, and Yahoo!) and enterprise IM (such as Microsoft LCS and IBM Lotus Instant Messaging). Company messaging policies also often require all business communications to be retained for litigation, monitoring and internal purposes.
IM Compliance Challenge
As with email, compliance requirements for IM communications have two main focuses:
- Recordkeeping & Monitoring - companies are required to control who can IM with whom (such as enforcing Chinese walls), to log and archive all IM, and to systematically review messages. These regulations include SEC 17a-4, NASD 3010, NASD 2711, NYSE Rules 440 & 342, Freedom of Information Act, and Sarbanes-Oxley.
- Privacy Protection & Security - companies are required to protect sensitive information (such as consumer financial data) when using Instant Messaging. Regulations include HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, California SB 1386, PIPEDA (Canada) and EU Data Protection Act (EU).
IM Compliance Solution
To achieve IM compliance when using public IM networks or LCS/Sametime, the IM Gateway enables IM chat sessions to be filtered, securely captured and consolidated in the Message Archiver, together with email and other electronic communications, for easy search, retrieval, monitoring and auditing.
Control access to IM
- Access control by user, group & domain
- Flexible content & keyword filtering
- Chinese walls between groups
- Automatic screen name mapping
- Authorized access to all public IM
Log & archive all IM
- Log both public and enterprise IM
- Integrates with Global Relay's Message Archiver & Compliance Reviewer
- Zero message loss architecture
Review & audit IM
- Robust web-based search & retrieval
- Conversation annotation and escalation features
- Reviewer and auditor roles with review quotas
- IM compliance reporting
Adherence to compliance & corporate policies
- archiving an authentic, permanent copy of all IM sessions
- monitoring IM user statistics
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IM Management
Many employees have daily, real-time reliance on Instant Messaging to communicate with co-workers, customers, and business partners. Combining the Akonix L7 Security Servers together with Global Relay's IM Interpreter and Message Archiver, organizations are provided with the tools necessary to manage both public and enterprise IM usage to ensure productive and appropriate use throughout the company.
Benefits
Manage identities of public and enterprise IM users
- Each IM user can simultaneously connect to each of the public IM networks and/or LCS, Sametime etc. and capture all session in same IM user account
- Automatic Mapping of IM screen name to the user's email address via Global Relay's LDAP
- Directory Synchronization - Global Relay LDAP syncs with users from Active Directory, LDAP, Novell eDirectory etc.
Seamless integration with current end user behavior
- Simple Setup - enabled within minutes, redirecting individual or company-wide IM messages through Global Relay's Data Centers
- Transparent use with existing IM clients - users can continue to use their current application clients on AOL, MSN etc. without interruption
- Requires no desktop touch - deploy with simple network change without any access to the end user desktop
- Grows with demand - incremental, automatic inclusion of new IM users as required
- Same day seamless integration with Message Archiver & Compliance Reviewer
Define policies for the appropriate use of IM
- Granular policy management - content and keyword filtering, foul language filters to restrict inappropriate use of IM
- File transfer control - define company-wide or more granular permissions for the ability to transfer files over IM and scan files for viruses
- Chinese walls - set rules on who can talk with whom to block any unwanted conversations
- Disclaimers - adds an alert with initial message notifying recipient IM session is being archived
Archiving & Retrieval
- Centralized Repository - unification of IM with an organization's email, Bloomberg, BlackBerry® etc.
- Robust Archiving - capture entire conversations and keys message statistics, such as network, user name and network identity
- Online Access - quick search & retrieval of IM sessions and threads via an Internet web browser
- Tamperproof Copy - IM sessions written to dedicated WORM drives for authentic, evidentiary quality copy
Prevent unauthorized use of IM
- Block unauthorized access - stop users from inadvertently or intentionally circumventing IM management
- Stop inappropriate conversations - use keyword & phrase filters to block specific confidential topics
- Stop Kazaa, BitTorrent and other P2P applications - provide managed access to collaborative tools by allowing controlled access to IM while blocking unproductive file sharing P2P application
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How Does the IM Gateway Work?
The IM Gateway is a proxy that sits between IM Users (eg: two AOL Users messaging each other using AIM) providing secure and controlled access and capture of public IM conversations.
- IM Gateway firewalls direct IM from public networks to redundant Hewlett Packard load balancers. The messages are then forwarded to a clustered configuration of Akonix L7 Enterprise Security Servers hosted within Global Relay's two mirrored Data Centers. This ensures highest message availability and redundancy.
- Akonix L7 Enterprise Security Servers facilitate real-time access to the public IM networks and filter the messages for protection against spam over IM (SPIM), malware, virus & worm attacks.
- IM Interpreter collects messages from the L7 Enterprise Security Servers and assembles them into conversations. These conversations are then associated with known users in LDAP and forwarded to Global Relay's Message Archiver.
- Message Archiver & Compliance Reviewer captures, scans and indexes the IM conversations for easy archive retrieval and monitoring purposes. Read More »
- Audit trails & Message Threads are associated with every action related to message and automatically tracked in the Audit Trail for a complete message history based on the reconstruction of complex conversation threads and user behavior for easy discovery for litigation and investigations.
Configuration Details
Setup is simple. For technical details on how to configure the IM Gateway see our Support pages.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Who Should Use the IM Gateway?
The IM Gateway is ideal for organizations that require greater control over, and security of, internal and external IM chat sessions of employees who are using the public networks and/or an enterprise messaging client. The IM Gateway is engineered to provide enterprise reliability for customers of any size looking for an affordable, outsourced solution to address security, corporate monitoring, archiving and compliance requirements.
What Versions of AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google and ICQ are supported?
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- AOL Instant Messenger, version 7.0, 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3
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- ICQ Instant Messenger 6.0, 6.5
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- MSN Live Messenger, version 8.5 (DNS mode only)
- MSN Messenger, version 7.5 (DNS mode only)
- Windows Live Messenger versions 8.0 and 8.1 (DNS mode only)
- Windows Messenger, versions 4.7, 5.0, 5.1
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- Yahoo! Messenger for Mac OS (Carbon), version 2.5.3 build 1062
- Yahoo! Messenger, versions 7.5, 8.0, 8.1, 9.0 and 10
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How is the IM Gateway Deployed?
The service can be enabled within minutes, redirecting individual or company-wide IM messages through Global Relay's Data Centers. An organization has three choices in order route your AOL, MSN & Yahoo messages through the IM Gateway:
- For individual computers - simply add a HOSTS file
- For small organizations - add Global Relay DNS servers to your TCP/IP properties
- For companies using Exchange - add Global Relay DNS setting to Active Directory
Where can I view my instant messages?
To view your instant messages in the Message Archiver, choose "Instant Messages" from the Folder list on the main Search page. Once you conduct a search, you will see instant messages on the Results page. Each IM type is distinguished in the Archive by icon for each identification:
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Messaging Partners
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