On Wed, 26 Jun 2002, Rizzo Frank wrote: : Chris, : : By "IM" I assume you're referring to Instant Messaging as an ideal, not : any particular protocol or vendor implementation. Which begs the : question, is "IM" is a risk because Christopher J. Wolff, VP CIO a : self-proclaimed tier 1 provider, says so, or because you have facts to : prove it, which you neglected to post? IRC and AIM have been : scrutinized pretty heavily and I can't think of any inherent flaws : (other than lack of out-of-box for support for encryption... but is the : PSTN really any more secure?). Just buggy clients under-educated users : opt to install. Your proprietary information is on someone else's server and it's up to them not to 'use' it. PSTN doesn't keep your info on a server or backed up somewhere. Don't be so snippy in public. Do it in private if you must do it... scott