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Blocking Instant Messengers?

Posted by Cliff on from the back-to-email-for-ye! dept.

Michael Mattes asks: "I have been looking for a set of ports/subnets to block in order to disable instant messengers behind my firewall. While MSN is easy to block, ICQ is a little more difficult and it seems as though Yahoo Messenger is designed to do everything possible to not be blocked. I have been reading more and more articles showing companies choosing to block these tools. It seems irresponsible of Yahoo to leave, what appears to me, no choice but to block their entire domain in this situation. Any help would be appreciated."

2 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. Re:dont block entire domain by Stinson · · Score: 5, Informative

    whoops, my bad...not login, but scs.yahoo.com, port 5050...if you just block that then they cant log on

  2. Re:usefullness? by duffbeer703 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The problem is many businesses, such as Healthcare, Insurance and Financial Services have mandatory federal data retention and auditing guidelines that they must meet.

    If communication between employees about a client is made via IM, not only is it insecure, but it is not logged or otherwise recorded anywhere. Without a paper trail, the company cannot defend itself against lawsuits or regulators.

    --
    Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK