[Web4lib] IM Security

[Micah Stevens]

Security Risk in what way? If by interacting with an outside server to 
provide the IM service you have a security risk, then just install a 
local Jabber server which is supported by many IM clients. This would 
also solve any sort of worry about an IM system distributed virus (Which 
has happened before through MSN I believe... )

If all you need is a service for the local group of people, a local 
server is a good way to go in my opinion because it's safer, you can 
control exactly how it behaves, and you eliminate any concerns about 
people using the IM for things other than work.

Just my two cents. Did they mention exactly what kind of security risk 
they were worried about? Throwing around key words just inflames and 
doesn't help the situation usually.

-Micah

Jami Haskell wrote:
> Please help!
> I would like to implement IM for inter-staff communications and, 
> hopefully,
> for reference/user services at my library.
> However, I am being met with major resistance from my systems staff. They
> claim that it is too much of a security risk and we cannot do it.
>
> Every other library I have worked in has used IM (either via Trillian or
> meebo) and security issues were never raised. I know that thousands of
> libraries use IM all the time. I am proposing that my library system use
> Meebo for this so that they can interact with multiple IM clients without
> having to install software on the machines.
>
> How can I explain to my systems folks that this is an okay thing to do??
> Please help!
>
> Thanks so much,
> Jami Haskell
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