MessageMate puts instant messaging to work

Instant messaging, while an extremely popular personal communications medium, has until now failed to take off in the business community, owing to worries about security and compliance. Now, Dublin-based Kranos Security Technologies has released an enterprise instant messaging (IM) service incorporating digital signatures and public-key encryption.

MessageMate is an outsourced, subscription service allowing organisations to use IM without the need for upfront investment in staff and infrastructure, allowing secure communication with remote employees, customers, suppliers and partners.

The service deals with security concerns by employing a ‘distributed security — centralised administration’ approach to managing users and their interactions. Administrators can set policies centrally for users, enforcing digital signing and encryption on messages as well as enabling logging, spam and content filtering. This gives invisible end-to-end security.

More than two years in development, the MessageMate desktop client also includes standard features such as server-stored address books, choice of online states, printing and saving of conversations.