• you can ever find it again, even though you know it's in that pile somewhere
• it will be complete, maybe the dog ate half of it
• that it will come back looking the same, maybe you spilled coffee on it or you printed out several pages and they've been mixed up so the order is wrong
  
• that someone else can look through the pile and find the piece of paper
• different things of difference genres or sizes will fit or stay in the pile properly

Today is an interesting and memorable day for FaceTime.  Earlier, Apple introduced their next generation iPhone and announced that it will use "FaceTime"  as the trademark for its new video calling application. 

I'm intrigued with the way that the use of the term "facetime" has evolved since we named our company about a decade ago.  Ten years ago, our solutions were for Instant Messaging and other "virtual facetime" applications of that ilk.  Now, "facetime" will refer to an application that enables callers to see one another, while using a mobile device and that makes me reflect on how far we've come.

Today's announcement echoes our long held belief that the Internet has changed - from one-way information delivery to two-way communication and collaboration. The New Internet is increasingly about communications, collaboration and communities - whether it's social networking, instant messaging or now video calling, users are increasingly bringing these tools into the workplace (if you didn't yet check out the results of our fifth annual survey - then you'll find some evidence of that here)

Our agreement with Apple to transfer the FaceTime trademark to them comes as we are rebranding our company to better reflect our capabilities.  From our virtual facetime beginnings 10 years ago, our solutions have continued to evolve and renaming our company will better reflect how we help enterprises leverage new communication in a secure and compliant manner.

So, it's an exciting day.  When I look around at these new communications tools - like a video calling application on a phone -I'm reminded of the old TV shows (I want no comments or jokes about my age...) with secret agents running around with video watches tracking down the bad guys.  It's amazing what we can now do.  I guess shoe phones and the cone of silence aren't too far away. 

Good thing our company will be there to keep the networks and the data secure and compliant.

2010 marks my tenth year with FaceTime - and I've seen some changes in those 10 years - no more so than in the Financial Services sector, where Vantage, the product that I manage excels.  Having a third party organization verify that is exceedingly gratifying - and that's what happened recently.  At the SC Magazine Europe Awards in London, Vantage was unveiled as the Best Security Solution for Financial Services.

Perhaps it's the pedigree - Vantage is based on the equally award winning IMAuditor, perhaps it's the new features that we rolled out recently (from support for Microsoft OCS CAC, to Group Chat support and Skype).  Maybe it's the product manager....

Ultimately, I think its that we absolutely understand the requirements of financial institutions, their reliance on real time communications, rigorous regulatory requirements and we do this alongside our understanding of the real time collaborative internet. 

Features such as real-time logging and policy for Microsoft Group Chat, data leak prevention for file transfers, zero day worm protection, inline legal disclaimers and a full 360 degree audit capability make Vantage uniquely positioned in heavily regulated industries such as Financial Services.

Who am I kidding, of course it's all due to the product management....

Brian Babin is Director of Product Management for FaceTime's Vantage and Insight products and celebrates his tenth year with the company in 2010

It's interesting to see that the latest IM worm doing the rounds on Yahoo and Skype is now using sophisticated social engineering to deliver its malware payload.    The NewPhoto Worm uses sophisticated social engineering to trick users into downloading an archive file called NewPhoto024.jpg.zip. A cleverly crafted message asks the recipient to check the quality of a photo attachment ("My printer is about to be thrown through a window if this pic won't come our right. You see anything wrong with it?") or download a similar image.

Anyone who knows me and my recent technological disasters would more than likely click on that link, as the printer is probably the only thing that HASN'T gone wrong yet...(I'm mentally crossing everything I own hoping, I haven't just jinxed it..), so I'm guessing if you're connected to me on Yahoo or Skype and we converse regularly, then you probably will download the file.

Once the file is downloaded, it executes a hidden executable file that opens a backdoor named Tofsee, Flot, or Skyhoo, depending on the antivirus vendor. This new worm is actually able to block antivirus software from operating properly and uses a rootkit to hide itself. It also adds malicious links to Microsoft Office files and infects USB removable drives.

Ouch.

So I'm pretty glad that we announced support for Skype earlier this year - and we've been supporting Yahoo for a number of years now, (does that sound like "I'm alright Jack??"   Well, what I mean to say, is that if you do get a "call for help" from someone with regard to their printer, and you're not protected by FaceTime yet - before you jump in with both feet, just look before you leap.

The drive to extend collaboration outside of our own network boundaries has never been so strong.  Whether our drivers are to save cost, a geographically challenged work force, a diverse supply chain network or reduce time to market - we're all looking to collaborate and communicate with individuals who don't necessarily adhere to the same security, management and compliance controls that you have on your network.

And we're using a variety of tools, I hesitate to admit to how many different applications I use to communicate, not just internally here at FaceTime, but with suppliers around the world, our channel and strategic partners, prospects and customers.  It's probably a good exercise actually to think about that right now.

My real time communications tools:

• Microsoft OCS
• Microsoft Live Meeting
• IBM Lotus Sametime
• Lotus Sametime Unyte
• Cisco Webex
• Skype
• Windows Live (MSN)
• AOL
• Yahoo
• GoogleTalk

Wow.  There's a wonder I ever get any work done with that little lot eh?

But I'm not unique.  It's representative of the world in which we work now - that enterprise deployed Unified Communications platforms, like OCS and Sametime are co-existing alongside those Web 2.0 tools that I installed myself - because - well because that's how I communicate with different folks around the world.

The need to secure and manage the whole picture has never been stronger either. The same risks apply in our 2.0 world as always did in a 1.0 world - so whether your bugbear is inbound threats, outbound data leakage and managing your errant employees - all these areas require consideration.  I guess the only problem is that in a 2.0 real time world - the issue becomes apparent, well, in real time.

Compliance too affects real time communications.  Regulatory bodies, from the SEC, FINRA, HIPAA to the Financial Services Authority have all issued guidelines and rules on use and retention of real time communications - they are, after all, simple electronic communications, and subject to the same regulation - AND LEGISLATION - that your email is.

If you want to take a look at just how much growth there has been in the usage of real time communications tools and how prepared the average organization is to deal with security, management and compliance issues- take a look at the results of FaceTime's fifth annual survey - and compare it to what's going on in your organization.

Today, we launched Vantage, the successor to IMAuditor. 

IMAuditor - farewell old friend, but our world has moved well beyond pure IM and just auditing - Vantage heralds the new standard for security, management and compliance for real time and Unified Communications - giving you a vantage point, a view, visibility and control over all facets of real time and unified communications and the individual tools and capabilities in those platforms. Vantage also gives you a significant advantage - from managing OCS CAC, to controlling federation, non registered employees, logging Sametime announcements - and across the widest range of UC platforms and public IM networks which now includes Skype.

Why not take a look for yourself? - and bring your security, management and compliance for unified communications up to the new standard.

Sarah Carter, who can also be reached on old fashioned email:  scarter@facetime.com

Today's guest blogger is Ajay Madan.  Ajay heads the Quality Assurance division of FaceTime. He has several years of experience working on products related to Network Security and Compliance. He is actively involved in working with the product and support engineering teams in devising and implementing processes and methodologies that ensure a high degree of quality for FaceTime's products. He has been closely tracking the developments in the social media space, the business impact due to the same and shares some of his thoughts in this article.

Take it away Ajay.

In recent months, there has been an increasing media attention on social networking sites; and how this impacts business, compliance, security and so on. Some staggering statistics (which I reference later in this article) have been thrown in to demonstrate the crazy adoption rates of the social media.

Social media, it appears,  is here to stay and companies are now understanding that it's not about blocking access now, but realizing that controlling and enabling access is the way forward.. It would sound naive to assume leadership teams in companies haven't yet begun this process, some still block access, others are engaging with vendors that help manage and control the use of social media, and some are just giving it some more time. So in this post, I don't focus too much on the statistics or impact of social media but look at the next steps for companies who understand the need to manage social media.

There are several aspects for CIOs/Head of IT departments to consider while evaluating policies for social media as well as for evaluating solutions to manage social media usage in the network.

Compliance Considerations

FINRA in their recent webinar indicated that companies will not be given a compliance grace period because Social Media technology is new and evolving. FINRA has asked companies to not allow usage of Social Media if they cannot supervise it or the social media site does not support archival. Bottom line - Companies must retain, archive and retrieve to be compliant.

If you are in a regulated industry, such as the financial services sector, you need to consider tools that either allow you to block access to unsanctioned social media and/or invest in a solution that allows you to monitor, archive and review content posted through social media.

Security Considerations

Perhaps another key question in the IT manager's mind pertains to security, There can be several concerns in this area -

• Its possible that users may leak sensitive information about the company through a post on Twitter or Facebook Wall
• Users in a regulated industry sending information - perhaps patient information via Facebook or Twitter
• Users with, lets say, corporate Facebook accounts using foul language in their posts.
• The potential for hidden malware, Trojans and the like in applications, perhaps such as the myriad of games and applets on Facebook.

A solution for Web 2.0 should provide or extend security controls to social media to address such concerns.

Policy Considerations

Some industries require a rich policy framework or workflow that allows the following -

• Ability to be able to moderate posts on social media before they are allowed to be posted to the actual site
• Ability to capture or moderate content that matches certain lexicons or pre-configured policy elements.
• Workflow for compliance officers to review the posted content
• Workflow to archive content for long term storage by inter-operating with enterprise archival systems and easy retrieval.

Bandwidth Considerations

There are certainly organizations and industries that do not have compliance requirements for social media, but who do need controls on bandwidth consumption. The common problem today is that companies have no way to measure the amount of time employees spend on social networking websites and in the past this has been recognized as a huge problem as it potentially impacts productivity. Hence this could be a core requirement for many companies.

Consider looking at solutions that allow you to set bandwidth limits for usage of social media.

Existing Infrastructure Considerations

Many IT departments are wary of having multiple vendors for different communication modalities and for the ease of management prefer to select those that provide functionality across all the considerations I referenced - as well as being able to provide these functionalities across other communications modalities, like IM and Unified Communications.

Consider an Evolving Market

Social media is new technology and will continue to evolve. Companies should look at solutions providers who have expertise in real time communications traffic, at those who adapt quickly to new technologies and who consider social media as part of a communications strategy, not in isolation.

Finally, I want to plug the solution that I work on. I've been with this product since it's inception and have seen it grow to become the first Secure Web Gateway that combines features, functions and controls for social media alongside other communications modalities.  Our Unified Security Gateway is uniquely positioned to address all the considerations I outlined above and helps companies manage not just social media across a broad spectrum of requirements - but web traffic on the whole, and more than 4,000 web and internet applications, from IM to remote control tools, to P2P tools. 

Now, I'll leave you with some pretty phenomenal statistics if you know any of those folks who are looking the other way when it comes to adopting social media.

But do check back on March 2nd when we launch the results of our fifth annual survey - and let me know what YOU'RE doing with social media.

Ajay

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

LinkedIn

http://techcrunch.com/2009/02/14/as-the-economy-sours-linkedins-popularity-grows/

Twitter

http://mashable.com/2009/01/09/twitter-growth-2008/

I read a short article in InvestmentNews today about a new social web site, LinkedFA, which is promoting itself as the "first and only Finra-compliant social networking site for financial professionals." I immediately thought to myself, how can a social networking site tout itself as Finra-compliant when Finra hasn't released its compliance guidelines yet? Finra postponed its introductory webinar until March.

Then I asked myself the larger question; why would financial professionals want a 'walled-garden' social media site in the first place? Doesn't that kind of defeat the objective? If you're a financial advisor, don't you want to be where your prospects are? A site dedicated to financial professionals is fine for connecting with people within your industry but it doesn't help you reach new customers.

Consider that there are currently more than 250 million Facebook users, 30 million Twitter users, and 25 million executives on LinkedIn. That's where the conversations are taking place. That's where you can reach customers and prospects.

Isn't it better to participate in this larger, open conversation taking place on the Web and develop best practices, with the help of technology, to make sure that those conversations are appropriately logged and accounted for? That's the best way to assure compliance, whether it's for Finra, the SEC, or some other regulatory agency.

Our financial services customers rely on FaceTime's IMAuditor and Unified Security Gateway to not only secure their networks, but to manage and log content for regulatory compliance.

That way they get the best of all worlds:

1) centralized control of online conversations stored on their own servers so they can be audited for compliance;

2) the ability to support any public social media site in a secure manner and 

3) the ability to allow their traders and other employees to use the application that is best suited to the job, whether that's Yahoo, Reuters, YellowJacket, Facebook or Twitter  - we don't mind, because, well, we support them all.

My team have put together a 30 minute briefing on "What you can stand to gain and lose with Social Media" - why not join them on January 27^th at either 10 eastern or 10 pacific?

This deal reaffirms our leadership in the Web 2.0 security space. More importantly, it highlights the growing need for network solutions that provide visibility and control at the application level not just at the port & protocol level. Check Point sees this need and will use our database to provide application level control. Application level control will become the price of entry in the Firewall market.

But beyond visibility and control, what enterprises are asking for is "enablement".

• How do I allow access to Facebook or LinkedIn and stay in compliance with FINRA or FERC or HIPAA or PCI or [insert your favorite regulation here]?

• How do I allow access to YouTube videos but not the inappropriate stuff?

• How do I allow access to blogs and wikis and webmail but ensure that confidential information if not getting posted?

Our customers realize they can't block access to the New Internet - they must enable it.

Which is why our mission statement reads "Secure & ENABLE the New Internet"

Today's guest blogger is Eric Young.  Eric is FaceTime's Sr, Director of Field Services, and works with FaceTime customers to implement leading edge security and compliance solutions for Unified Communications and Web 2.0.  Eric's worldwide role gives him an insight into the global requirements of organizations implementing real time communications technologies to enable their businesses and works closely with our product team to ensure that FaceTime solutions remain at the forefront of the industry.

Yesterday's solution doesn't address today's issues.

I was onsite with a customer recently completing our fifth competitive replacement within the Fortune 400 in the past 6 months.  As the customer was detailing all of the requirements the previous solution did not satisfy, it made me wonder, how are other customers of these competitors feeling they are operating in a compliant fashion? 

If you, as a compliance officer or legal counsel, cannot make sense of a group chat conversation, cannot actually view the content of a blocked message, or can't see what folks are trying to post to a social networking site; how can you possibly defend your organization from SEC fines or from a lawsuit in a court of law? 

Security technologies evolve quickly, especially in the area of real-time communications - but the adoption of tools like Unified Communications, Instant Messaging and social media has grown exponentially - in many cases even without the knowledge of either IT or compliance.

Regulation and compliance changes too, with the times.  Most recently I've seen FINRA starting to address the issue of social media and issuing guidelines to member organizations and individuals on how usage should be treated. 

We all understand there is a big difference between "logging" and "being compliant" but knowing there are still some banks and other highly regulated companies using these legacy solutions that were designed for technology of a few years back, it begs the questions:  What are the minimum requirements for security and compliance for Unified Communications, Instant Messaging and Social Media?

And, what are you doing about dealing with emerging technology?

Damon Martin, takes a primary role in the development of technical and sales direction for SKT, a national Unified Communications consulting firm based in the central US.  Damon executes consulting practices and sales methodologies developed to ensure organizations realize the promise of Unified Communications.

Here, Damon discusses what's changed in the workplace - and what's becoming more relevant.

For many of us that have been consulting on Unified Communications for years it is hard to see the transformations when they are happening.  I remember talking to organizations about CTI when the idea that your computer could talk to your PBX was bleeding edge.    There has been an enormous amount of discussion in the past year about Unified Communications and its business impact.  An interesting transition for me has been that I don't find myself answering the question "What is Unified Communications?" anymore.  Instead, I find myself talking to organizations about what Web 2.0 and social networking mean to their business. The reality is that those questions are a natural progression of the dialog.  There is an inherent link between Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking tools and Unified Communications.

What is changing in the workplace?
There is awareness within today's workplaces that we have to find ways to become more productive.  The effects of today's economic environment and acceptance of the "new normal" have allowed us to see the workforce output that is expected for information workers at our companies.  That productivity is fueled by an increasing demand for a collaborative working culture.  There are several trends that are emerging in the new workplace:

• Unwillingness to return to previous employment levels
• Demands for higher productivity from information workers
• Elimination of organizational layers
• Increasing expectations for staff to take on a variety of roles and responsibilities

There is an interesting phenomenon of the new workforce; workers are finding an environment where they are being forced to collaborate with others at a much higher degree than was required previously.  This pressure has a logical conclusion that we are seeing play out in many organizations:

1. Workers need to collaborate quickly and effectively and today's phones and email are not fast enough with most communications resulting in a voicemail or replies hours later.
2. Workers have become accustomed to instant access to friends and family with text messages, Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging.

The result is that workers have a desire and need to use collaboration tools.  If we look at Unified Communications as a tool and explore its ability to add business value by driving collaboration, we can start to understand how social networking is an indication of the willingness of our teams to embrace Unified Communications and Collaboration.

Why is Web 2.0 relevant?
The key to the adoption of Unified Communications in the workplace is embracing it as a collaboration tool.  The question about whether people can use social networking tools to collaborate has been answered by the prolific growth of tools and social network sites.  The burden now is on solutions providers and vendors to help executives at companies understand how to leverage a Unified Communications platform to provide a tool-set.  Businesses need to continue growing productivity without returning to the staffing levels they that drove up costs.  We hear the question "how can we get our staff to embrace Unified Communications".  The key is to understand that they already have by tweeting feedback at a trade show or posting pictures of grandchildren on Facebook.  The vendors are doing a good job of showing demos of how Unified Communications works to IT departments.  In the interim, workers are finding ways to collaborate because they have to stay competitive and provide the output that is expected in today's workplace. 

Conclusion
It is time for the technology departments to accept that Unified Communications is not something that can be migrated to over time or tested for small user groups.  Businesses are not going to back away from demands for increasing productivity.  Workers have realized that collaborative communication is the way to make productivity sustainable.  We have to work to help organizations understand that Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) is where the consumer acceptance of social networking and the business software for Unified Communications come together. 

Damon originally posted this blog entry at the SKT Blog earlier in November 09.  You can follow Damon on Twitter.

The IT department is getting pressure from the business users to allow the use of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all of which they currently block. When I asked them why the business units wanted access to these sites, they gave me three reasons:

1. The financial advisors are telling them that referrals they get through Facebook and LinkedIn tend to convert to clients at a much higher rate than any other channel. This resonated with me - at FaceTime we constantly remind our salespeople to leverage their social networks for prospecting. It is well know that human beings are tribal by nature and are more likely to respond to someone who is "connected" to them in someway - even when you have millions of connections!
2. Their marketing group is focused on the 35-45 year old demographic since this is where people hit the peak of their earning power and start thinking about financial planning. Getting clients in their late thirties means you can hang on to them 20-30 years. Turns out that the over-35 demographic is the fastest growing user group at Facebook and the largest segment for both LinkedIn and Twitter.
3. Finally, the company is finding that their ability to recruit at college campuses and MBA schools is enhanced by their Facebook and Twitter presence. As we all know, college kids live with these technologies and businesses that block access are seen as old school.

I am hearing similar reasons from other customers across all industry groups. Enterprises are recognizing the power of social networking to recruit new customers, stay in touch with existing customers and enhance communication with their employee base.

Of course there are several challenges that need to be overcome. In a survey FaceTime conducted in June of this year, organizations identified their top three concerns as content leakage, regulatory and corporate compliance and reputation damage.

"I am not worried about the guy who wants to steal information" the IT manager at a large services firm said to me. "I am worried about mistakes. People don't realize that competitors can also see your status update on LinkedIn and if you're talking about working on a particular project, you've just told the world." The inadvertent leakage of content is a common concern among the security managers I speak with.

On the compliance front, regulatory authorities are increasingly focusing on the use of these networks within regulated industries such as financial services, energy and healthcare. For example, FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, recently formed a Social Networking Task Force to look into the compliance challenges posed by social networking sites.

Finra CEO Rick Ketchum said, at the SIFMA Annual Meeting "Social networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn provide new ways to connect, inform and interact with customers... They also raise new regulatory challenges. For example, as currently designed they may not allow you to archive and maintain the communications on your own books and records."

Reputation damage is another concern for large enterprises. How do you track what employees and customers are saying about your company? The CIO of an electric utility company noted that they used Twitter to communicate information about outages and other emergencies to their customer base. "I worry that a disgruntled employee or customer could hijack our Twitter account and start spreading misinformation".

Another customer, a large bank that ran into some problems integrating an acquisition, talked about how customers were blasting the bank on Facebook and Twitter. "Because we block the use of these sites within our company, we were caught off-guard and didn't understand how we should respond to these comments." The IT manager noted. "Our marketing group is now formulating a strategy on how to leverage these platforms. We need to be more savvy about these channels."

Notwithstanding the challenges, it is clear that enterprises recognize the value of these sites and are motivated to overcome them. (Shamefaced sales pitch follows) FaceTime recently announced USG 3.0 which is designed to address these challenges and allow enterprises to leverage the benefits of social networking.

I would be interested in hearing your views on the use of social networking in your business. Do you agree with the above reasons? Are there other reasons?

Branded Green Dam-Youth Escort, China's foreign ministry spokesman defends the software claiming it's "aimed at blocking and filtering some unhealthy content, including pornography and violence" in an effort to protect children.

Putting aside the obvious discussions of censorship versus freedom of information, there's a fatal flaw in China's plan. Maybe we shouldn't tell them this, but Web filtering software alone doesn't block people from visiting Web sites and/or accessing Web applications.

Surprised? While the Internet used to be primarily about transmitting and accessing fairly static information via HTTP, FTP and e-mail it's now dominated by Web 2.0 applications such as instant messaging, P2P, VoIP and social networking sites. Savvy Internet users already use tools like anonymizers to mask their browsing habits, and real-time communications and Web 2.0 applications are highly evasive, specifically designed to get around Web filtering, firewalls and other traditional security solutions using a variety of techniques like port crawling, tunneling, onion routing, etc. - after all, their goal is to grow their communities and ensure users have the full experience.

From what I've read, neither China nor the media has considered or addressed this. I'm certainly not in favor of China to block access -- yes, FaceTime helps organizations control employee Web browsing and use of Web 2.0 applications, where visiting certain sites or using certain applications may be inappropriate in the workplace, put the company at risk or impact productivity -- but the Web sites you choose to visit and applications you use at home are for you to decide and parents to control.

The backlash over China's censorship plans is widespread, including nearly 20 trade groups representing technology companies calling on the Chinese government to reconsider the mandate contending that it "raises significant questions of security, privacy, system reliability, the free flow of information and user choice." There's also the California company that claims the mandated Internet filtering software contains stolen programming code. Other articles say the Chinese government has already backed down, retreating on its controversial new web filtering plan, saying the software can be uninstalled or switched off.

Every self-respecting marketing person would dress up like a hippie for the sake of a marketing promotion, right? Well, Sarah Carter and I would, anyway.

You see, here at FaceTime, we're all about peace, love and free URL filtering. Okay, yes, it's a promotion we've been running for the past couple of months, but we really do feel the love when it comes to helping our customers manage their budgets by eliminating URL filtering renewal fees. Rumor has it there will be a group of protesters at the RSA Conference next week speaking out against those fees so be sure to stop by the FaceTime booth #2339 and check it out. And don't forget to wear your tie dye.

Seriously, all this commotion and protesting, but we really don't have anything against URL filtering. Everyone needs URL filtering, it's just that it's not enough when it comes to managing the New Internet. A much more granular level of application control is required when it comes to securing and managing Web 2.0 including social networking, multimedia, virtual worlds, VoIP ... and the list goes on.

So we've been having a lot of fun with our No URL Filtering Fees promotion in our Larissa and Sarah Show episodes. NetworkWorld even called our YouTube videos quirky. We'll take that as a compliment.

Peace out.