Guidance issued by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) on
instant messaging use in relation to the Markets in Financial
Instruments Directive (MiFID), came into effect on November 1,
2007.
In its Policy Statement regarding Telephone Recording: recording
of voice conversations and electronic communications, the FSA quite
clearly implicates instant messaging, but also leaves it open to
include any subsequent forms of electronic communications:
The term electronic communication has a wide
application. It includes fax, email, Bloomberg mail, video
conferencing, SMS, business to business devices, chat and instant
messaging. But it is not limited to these as it captures any
electronic communications involving receiving client orders and the
agreeing and arranging transactions.
The guidance also specifies that:
More specifically it was proposed that firms -
including banks, stockbrokers, investment management firms (in
general) and insurance companies - be required to record telephone
lines that are used for the receipt of client orders, the
negotiation, agreement and arrangement of transactions across
financial markets. Firms would also be required to retain
electronic communications related to these same activities
(including fax, e-mail, chat and instant messaging).
And highlights some of the issues surrounding Instant Messaging
usage:
There are IM solutions that are free and available on
the internet. However, as reported in the Actica report: "many of
the free variants have no capability to record communications and
those that do, commonly provide no way for system administrators to
mandate recording/archiving of conversations. Although business
processes can be used with these free and internet based solutions
to record and archive communications, the assurances for these
solutions are low."
Conclusions
After reviewing the guidance thoroughly Actiance has determined
that there are two legitimate responses to the guidance:
1. Allow secured and managed IM to be
used in the organization with appropriate usage policies and
technological safeguards.
Or alternatively but less plausibly:
2. Block all unsanctioned public IM
and File Sharing Networks.
In both cases, Actiance's solutions have a unique value
proposition. In fact, our "defence-in-depth" approach is the only
way to satisfy the two possible responses to the guidance.
Unified Security Gateway is
the only Secure Web Gateway to combine content monitoring,
management and security of Web 2.0 applications, such as social
networks and instant messaging, with URL filtering, anti-malware
and Web anti-virus protection.
Vantage is the
de facto platform for granular security, policy controls, and
compliance features for real-time and unified communications (UC) -
providing management for the widest variety of UC and real-time
communications platforms, including Microsoft Lync and OCS and IBM
Sametime, public instant messaging platforms such as Windows Live
and Skype, Web conferencing, and industry-focused networks like
Reuters, Bloomberg, and YellowJacket.
Together, these products comprise a working set that is a
perfect fit for FSA member firms that are looking for an immediate
and proven solution.
If you have any additional questions regarding how Actiance
solutions can ensure true compliance for your workplace IM, please
complete your details
and we'll get right back to you.