Instant messaging world

When it comes to running a successful company, any business owner will tell you that communication is key. But many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) find it hard to get a proper communication system that fits into their tight budgets. A new partnership between Telus Corp and Microsoft Corp is hoping to change that. The two companies are teaming up to offer a range of services that will make communication between business partners, suppliers and employees cheaper and easier. "SMBs are the single most under-served market in Canada," said Sean Seaton, director of Microsoft Canada's communications sector. Seaton was speaking at a conference hosted by the Toronto Board of Trade in May, during which the partnership was announced. The focus, he said, is to provide better services to the SMB sector in Canada through unified communications. Unified communications (UC) allows for the integrated use of a variety of communications tools, such as voice and e-mail, instant mess...

Rick Coca of the Daily News had a story on the cover today concerning an FBI warning about hackers who set up their own WiFi router with the same SSID name as the public WiFi router you wish to connect to, with the purpose being to steal vital passwords and other information during your wireless Internet session. While the article was short and didn't go very deep into the security issues surrounding WiFi and Internet networking in general, and laptop computers in particular, users of WiFi in general and public WiFi in particular need to be aware of what they should and shouldn't do. The article did say that it's a good idea to have your computer configured to CHOOSE the WiFi router to which you wish to connect, because the consequences could be, for lack of a better word, bad: Once in, a hacker can steal passwords and credit-card information and install viruses, worms and other malware — malicious software — on a computer that can spread to other systems you run. (FBI cybe...

Industry's First Fully Virtualized Solution to Offer Identity-Driven, Policy-Based Security and Data Loss Prevention in a Single, Extensible Platform for Total Email Lifecycle Management MONTREAL--(Marketwire - May 21, 2008) - Messaging Architects, global leaders in risk management software and services for enterprise email, announced today the availability of version 2008.2 of its successful M+Guardian Secure Messaging Firewall. Now available as a fully virtualized appliance, called M+Guardian VMF, it delivers advanced email security and data loss prevention combined with the business benefits of server virtualization. M+Guardian VMF integrates seamlessly with other components of the M+ platform such as M+Archive, ensuring fully compliant email lifecycle management. With this release, Messaging Architects enables organizations to fully leverage the business continuity and high availability features linked to server virtualization and apply them to their messaging and collaboration...

Network security can be a thorny issue for small businesses because they generally lack pricey equipment and dedicated IT people who have the expertise to lock down a local area network. But addressing security is nevertheless essential: Just one customer data breach could easily wipe out a small business, and constantly battling viruses, spyware, and spam can sap employee productivity. Threats may come from wireless deployments, too--Wi-Fi is a great convenience but also a serious weak point in most networks--as well as from Web site breaches and from employee downloads of illegitimate material. (Since you are responsible for employees' use of your network, that last vulnerability can have serious consequences.) And that list doesn't even count bandwidth wasted when employees visit sites like MySpace and Facebook, or watch YouTube videos, on company time. How can you secure your small business against so many disparate threats, constrained as you are by limited resources? The ...