SPIM, SPIT & SPAM

The grumblings in the industry are that SPIM [Instant Messaging SPAM] primarily and SPIT [Internet Telephony SPAM] will cause major headaches for network admins the world over unless something is done ASAP.

The last thing anyone wants, except for those dreaded spammers, is to see the same SPAM issues we have seen in email now show up in IM and Voice and Video over IP. As we move into open standards for IM [SIMPLE, XCAP, MSRP] we will see growth that could easily cripple networks when coupled with SPAM. We need to cut this off at the pass before it get’s out of hand.

IM will eventually replace email, we need to be prepared for SPAM and handle it better than we did email SPAM.

Security needs to be addressed from several levels, not just the enterprise. It’s not enough to use IM Logic, Sybari or Zone Labs. There has to be a system that makes the entire spamming process so difficult or expensive that they are stifled before they start.

There are proposed solutions which will see the light of day soon, hopefully it’s soon enough!