Going Public
If your company decides to use a public IM service, you can enhance its security without spending much money, though you must have cooperation from your users. First, use encryption and direct IM if available. Third-party IM clients, such as Cerulean Studios' Trillian, offer encryption between clients. Encourage users to select passwords for their public IM accounts that are different from those for the internal network. The IT department should never make any password or account information requests over IM, nor should your users. Whitelist only those people on established contact lists, and don't let outsiders see presence information. Ask users to create an IM handle that contains your company name and uses a standardized naming convention, if possible. These steps should help cut down on impersonators and IM spam. Finally, don't forget to keep client software up to date. This will decrease your vulnerability to viruses and worms that have attacked public IM clients in the past.
We're not aware of any easy (or free) way to force whitelists, direct IM or standardized user names for public network clients, but you can purchase a third-party add-on to ensure compliance. Akonix Systems' L7, FaceTime Communications' IMAuditor and IMLogic's IM Manager let you force encryption, set access-control policies, limit who can communicate with whom and require a minimum client version and standard screen names. They also let you audit and log conversations.
These products even let you block some IM features, such as file transfers, which are a huge and often overlooked vulnerability. Aside from the fact that it's incredibly easy to transmit a confidential file over an IM service, incoming files may not be scanned for viruses in the same way that an e-mail attachment is (assuming your mail server scans for malicious files). You also can selectively block certain IM protocols or let only select groups use IM.
Keep It Private
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