Government and critical infrastructure organizations are deeply confused about messaging security, with the vast majority using consumer messaging apps for sensitive discussions, according to BlackBerry research.

In a survey of 700 security decision-makers in the US, UK, Canada, and Singapore, researchers at BlackBerry Secure Communications have found that 83% use WhatsApp for sensitive communications.

Indeed, they said, it's the most-used communication method, at 83%, way ahead of personal email, at 54%, and Teams at 50%.

They showed little understanding of what security these apps actually provide, with 52% wrongly believing that encryption protects metadata, including location data, IP addresses, and communication patterns, and 47% thinking it prevents impersonation, deepfake, or spoofing attacks. More than four-in-ten thought that communications are still secured, even after a device has been compromised.

"Consumer messaging apps were never designed to handle sensitive communications, protect confidentiality, or meet the demands of high-security environments," said Christine Gadsby, chief security advisor at BlackBerry Secure Communications.

"They rely on phone numbers, not verified identities – and encryption protects the channel, not who is on it. That gap is already being exploited, as recent intelligence warnings show, and governments and critical infrastructure organizations are responding by moving toward communications infrastructure they own and trust."

The problem is that only 10% fully understand what encryption actually protects, with more than seven-in-ten viewing end-to-end encryption (E2EE) as a comprehensive security solution.

Their main misconceptions are that E2EE protects data before or after decryption, that it verifies or protects the identity of communicating parties, hides or protects metadata, and can secure devices that may have already been compromised. This misunderstanding was found pretty uniformly across all four countries surveyed, ranging from 89% to 91%.

"Organizations believe one thing while doing another. They recognize threats but trust tools that do not address them. They require capabilities their platforms cannot provide. They express confidence that exceeds their actual preparedness," the researchers concluded.

The problem, they said, is a mismatch between what security tools do and what organizations believe they do, and between policy requirements and infrastructure architecture.

"This translation failure has been enabled by marketing that emphasizes strengths while obscuring limitations, by procurement processes that accept vendor claims without independent verification, and by the natural human tendency to believe that visible security measures provide comprehensive protection," the researchers said.

Intelligence agencies in the US, the UK, and Europe have repeatedly warned about the risks of messaging apps.

Last month, the US' FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned that the Russian Intelligence Services were bypassing encryption in commercial messaging applications to compromise individual user accounts, including current and former US government officials, military personnel, political figures, and journalists.

And there's been similar activity from China-affiliated APT31 and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Poor workplace communication is inflicting a serious toll on employee productivity and morale, according to new research from Atlassian.

Research conducted by the collaboration software provider found 87% of staff are wasting an average of five hours a week clarifying confusing emails and fragmented discussions in messaging platforms.

More than eight-in-ten (83%) UK workers told the company they'd experienced misread messages that have triggered real consequences at work – from damaged coworker relationships (38%) to HR escalation (32%).

Two-thirds (64%) have even been reprimanded by their bosses because a message they sent was misunderstood, or the tone came across the wrong way. In some cases, this has gone even further, with 14% saying that miscommunication was a factor in a colleague being dismissed.

Atlassian warned this has become a major source of stress for workers, with 61% saying they have replayed the fallout from a misinterpreted message long after they’ve logged off.

Nearly three-in-ten (29%) said they'd considered quitting altogether after a miscommunication at work. 

Going back to basics

The issue has reached such an extent that one-third of workers said they prefer engaging with colleagues in-person or through virtual face-to-face calls when discussing activities.

Just over than three‑quarters (76%) said even a short recorded video message would help prevent miscommunication by conveying tone, intent, and context more effectively.

“Miscommunication isn’t a personality flaw or a minor quirk of remote work. It’s a measurable drag on productivity, culture, and wellbeing,” said Jesse Feldman, Head of Loom PMM at Atlassian.

"Written communication will always matter, but we can't always outsource complex, sensitive, or nuanced messages to AI writing tools,” Feldman added.

“In the modern working world, leaders and managers need to set the tone by choosing richer formats when it really counts – sometimes a short recorded video is the best way to deliver an update with emotional resonance.”

The firm advises paying more attention to the way written communication such as email or chat is used, and when to consider richer formats of communication.

Using async video, rather than, say, a one-line direct message, can remove uncertainty when tone really matters.

"If you’re about to send something that could reasonably be interpreted three different ways, that’s your cue to switch to a richer channel instead of another text‑heavy message,” Atlassian said.

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Meta has announced a new ‘Communities’ feature for WhatsApp, allowing for group chats to be organised together under an umbrella group.

With Communities, WhatsApp states that groups such as workplaces can bring up to 50 disparate group chats together under umbrella categories such as departments or office locations. Unlike Facebook groups, WhatsApp communities will be invite-only.

For added functionality, community administrators will be able to send community-wide announcements, run community-wide polls, and manage messages within group chats.

This will allow for a hierarchical structure, in which group chats are run by individual managers with only certain individuals within an organisation given control over entire communities.

WhatsApp is one of the most widely-used messaging apps worldwide and has a wide business userbase. Around 400 million people are believed to use WhatsApp in India, where the app is also widely used for communication between companies and customers as well as for internal company communications.

Communities will primarily benefit internal communications, in practice acting like productivity apps such as Slack or Teams. The update adds to this by expanding video calls to include 32 participants, and increasing group chat sizes fourfold from a maximum of 256 to 1,024 participants, both of which benefit large teams.

However, it will still lack a number of features such as shared document editing, integrated automation, and plugins that such apps provide. Despite this, as WhatsApp is free it remains a useful option for communication amongst small and medium-sized businesses.

WhatsApp Business, a separate app from WhatsApp LLC, allows businesses to engage directly with customers manually and through basic automation, as well as advertise catalogues within the app.

CRM specialist Salesforce and WhatsApp partnered recently to offer firms a unified commerce and marketing platform within WhatsApp, with the ability to bring customers into a chat through adverts on Facebook, and use data to target audiences.

A key feature of WhatsApp chats is that they are end-to-end encrypted (E2EE), giving an added layer of privacy to all messages sent on the app. Businesses might find this especially attractive, as it offers a layer of security for sensitive business information.

This is not without controversy, with the UK government largely opposed to E2EE despite two-thirds of IT professionals saying banning E2EE would do more harm than good. The currently stalled Online Safety Bill, proposed under former home secretary Priti Patel, would override E2EE by legally compelling companies operating messaging apps to scan for child abuse imagery.

Although WhatsApp is frequently applied in the private sector, its use by public servants such as MPs has drawn the attention of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). In July, the ICO called for a review of the government's WhatsApp use, stating that frequent use of the app for official channels could breach transparency and accountability requirements.

Meta remains not only committed to retaining WhatsApp encryption, but also eventually rolling out E2EE to Messenger and Instagram as well.

The new features are expected to be rolled out imminently worldwide, on both WhatsApp mobile and desktop.

IT Pro has approached WhatsApp for comment.

CRM specialist Salesforce has announced a new partnership with WhatsApp, which will enable businesses to sell, market and provide support via the messaging platform.

Available from December 2022, new WhatsApp-first business messaging has been designed to facilitate a convenient and personalised communication experience through customers’ preferred method of contact – messaging.

According to recent Salesforce data, 90% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products, with 66% of online adults around the world preferring messaging as a way to communicate with a business.

In response, the new Salesforce-WhatsApp integration will enable brands to customise this communication experience and answer questions directly, provide support, as well as promote and sell products.

“WhatsApp-first business messaging enables every Salesforce customer to provide personal and conversational experiences that increase sales, improve customer service, and engage customers wherever they are,” commented Michael Affronti, General Manager of Messaging at Salesforce.

The partnership leverages Salesforce Genie, the company’s new data platform that powers the first real-time CRM, Customer 360, to offer seamless and personalised experiences across sales, service, marketing, and commerce.

Salesforce says this will enable companies to target certain audiences with real-time data and channel customers into a one-to-one chat through Click-to-WhatsApp ads on Facebook and Instagram.

Businesses will have the ability to craft an end-to-end customer journey and personalisation of marketing-driven interactions with the Genie-powered Marketing Cloud Customer Data Platform (CDP).

AI and automation also aim to improve conversation quality and reduce support time, as well as a host of additional features such as customisable message templates that include brand images and videos, and customisable buttons that allow users to respond with a single tap.

Additionally, all messages sent between businesses and customers are protected by Signal encryption protocol.

As part of the pilot for the integration, L’Oreal brands will use WhatsApp to reconnect with consumers who had previously left items in a shopping cart, sending them coupons and offers directly in the chat thread.

“As more customers use their mobile devices as their primary way to engage our brand, we need a single messaging solution that pulls in information across sales, service, marketing, commerce, and IT, to help us deliver personalized customer service, deliver product recommendations, and increase sales,” explained Asmita Dubey, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer at L’Oréal.

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Signal has appointed Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of the AI Now Institute and founder of Google’s Open Research Group, as its first-ever president.

As president, effective September 12, Whittaker will be responsible for company strategy. Speaking to The Washington Post, she outlined her priority as sustaining the firm’s funding, noting that it “costs tens of millions of dollars per year to develop and maintain an app like Signal.”

The encrypted messaging service Signal is primarily known for its app, which provides users with end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on all messages by default and has been widely used by protesters seeking to avoid surveillance.

A former Google manager, Whittaker was one of the main organisers of the 2018 walkout that saw 20,000 employees leave their desks to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment cases and forced arbitration. After drawn out action, the movement secured Google employees' class action rights and an end to the forced arbitration practice.

Further protests in which Whittaker was involved centred around Google’s involvement in the Pentagon’s ‘Project Maven’, which would have seen AI used to enhance the capabilities of military drones. Employee pressure eventually forced Google to withdraw from the project altogether, and publish an AI ethics code.

Since leaving the company, Whittaker has been a prominent critic of artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition technology, testifying before congress that both carry the risk of entrenching existing biases against minorities. She has also advised the Federal Trade Commission on AI in the role of senior advisor.

“Signal is not made for pristine academic speculation, it is made to be used by real people, all over the world,” stated Whittaker, in a blog post announcing her appointment to the role.

“And many millions do use it, turning to Signal for a safe and pleasant space where intimate, experimental, and private communication can happen outside of the surveillant gaze of dominant tech companies and states who can and do subpoena their data.

“I believe that Signal is core infrastructure whose growth and stability is imperative for a livable future. And as Signal’s President I will do everything I can to build on Signal’s firm foundation and vision, and to create a rich soil where Signal can continue to grow and thrive.

“I’m honored to be taking this role, and I’m grateful to the team whose careful work makes Signal possible, and to the community beyond who contribute labor and intelligence that helps us maintain our rigorous standards. Onward!”

Whittaker assumes her position amidst growing government hostility towards the use of E2EE in messaging apps. The currently stalled Online Safety Bill received an amendment in July that would compel companies operating messaging apps to scan for child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) content and remove it from their platform or be fined up to 10% of their worldwide revenue. Firms would be required to use “best endeavours to develop or source” technology to do the same, effectively mandating backdoors into messaging apps that security services could use.

Last year, Meta continued with its roll out of encryption as default across the direct messaging of its apps Messenger and Instagram, facing harsh criticism from the UK government. Despite this, experts have argued that E2EE is a necessary technology and that restricting the technology would have a detrimental effect on the tech landscape.

The instant messaging platform Telegram has amassed over 700 million monthly active users and will soon be rolling out a 'premium' tier as it looks to monetise a portion of its user base.

Exclusive new features will be added to the paid version, though no pricing has been disclosed for the monthly subscription.

Telegram, which was founded in 2013 by Russian brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, famously states that its end goal is not to "bring profit" and even has a non-profit organisation structure. This is largely down to its resistance to deploying targeted in-message advertising, though that stance has softened a little with the company testing non-targeted advertising in public channels.

As such, the premium tier appears to be a way for the company to monetise users that it is comfortable with, in that it keeps it user-driven, rather than based on targetted advertising. The premium tier will include the ability to send large files (4GM up from 2GB) and will support faster downloads as well as capacity for up to 1,000 channels - standard users can only have 500.

Telegram also appears to be the first of the large messaging platforms to roll out a premium tier with none of Signal, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp having any kind of higher paid-for offering, though, there are unconfirmed reports that WhatsApp is working on a premium tier.

Founder and chief executive, Pavel Durov, had previously said that the premium tier was in response to user demand for additional storage and bandwidth.

​​"After giving it some thought, we realised that the only way to let our most demanding fans get more while keeping our existing features free is to make those raised limits a paid option," he said.

While pricing hasn't been specified for the US and Europe, a premium version in India is available for $6 (US dollars) on iPhone, so the tier could likely be between £4 and £5.

Microsoft has announced the availability of several new Teams features, which have been designed to tackle common audio and video challenges across various environments.

Built on the platform’s recent AI-powered advancements, the additions include echo cancellation, audio adjusting in poor acoustic environments, as well as the ability for users to speak and hear at the same time without interruptions.

“Disruptive echo effects, poor room acoustics, and choppy video are some common issues that hinder the effectiveness of online calls and meetings,” Microsoft explained in a blog post.

“Through AI and machine learning, which have become fundamental to our strategy for continual improvement, we’ve identified and are now delivering innovative enhancements in Microsoft Teams that improve such audio and video challenges in ways that are both user-friendly and scalable across environments.”

Voice quality improvements

To help counter troublesome echo sounds, Microsoft Teams now leverages AI to recognise the difference between noise from a speaker and the user’s voice, serving up effective echo cancellation without suppressing speech.

There’s also new functionality that Microsoft is calling “de-reverberation,” which uses machine learning to ensure speech sounds as if users are speaking into a close-range microphone in rooms with poor acoustics.

Additionally, Microsoft has improved the ability for users to interrupt or interject in a conversation with minimal interference or echo when the speaker and mic are close to each other, while background noise suppression has been boosted with an improved reduction of unwanted sounds.

Video quality improvements

On the visual front, Microsoft has added real-time screen optimisation which adjusts itself for the content being shared. Essentially, Teams will detect and adjust the characteristics of the content in real-time to improve the legibility or quality of video playback.

The platform’s fresh AI-based optimisation also helps to adjust video playback in challenging bandwidth conditions, the Redmond firm said, while new brightness and focus filters will better accommodate low-light environments.

“In addition to bringing new features and capabilities to Teams, we’ll continue to explore new ways to use technology to make online calling and meeting experiences more natural, resilient, and efficient,” Microsoft added.

When WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook – along with its Messenger – all went down in October, it became apparent just how ingrained messaging apps have become in people’s everyday lives.

Many immediately took to Twitter (where else?) to express their frustrations at not being able to contact friends and family as normal. Others cited how critical such channels were to those in countries where free speech is undermined, or where communication infrastructure is lacking.

Late last year, on an earnings call, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg revealed how WhatsApp now delivers more than 100 billion messages a day across the globe, clearly demonstrating how free messaging platforms have left SMS and the simple phone call trailing in their wake.

This most recent outage, however, was also used by others to highlight the belief that some messaging routes might be more private and secure than others. Privacy advocate Edward Snowden, for example, suggested on Twitter that it was a “reminder that you and your friends should probably be using a more private, non-profit alternative”.

Snowdon cited Signal as one example. Describing the eponymous app on its website, Signal says: “We can’t read your messages or listen to your calls, and no one else can either. Privacy isn’t an optional mode — it’s just the way that Signal works.” Competitor Telegram is growing in popularity for similar reasons.

Andrew Whaley, senior technical director at Norwegian app security company Promon suggests the growth over time in the use of encrypted messaging apps has been determined by the richer functionality and privacy they offer to consumers and company teams.

“Apps like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram all offer end-to-end encryption, which, for the many people wanting privacy, is a big bonus,” he says. “In some cases, this could be privacy from advertisers, while, for others, this might be privacy from the state. Either way, simple SMS or email is typically the less secure option.”

From regulation to whistleblowing

The shift to using end-to-end encrypted messaging apps has thrown up a broad range of controversies, as well as highlighted a range of benefits.

In some quarters, they are seen as having a negative impact on society with governments around the world regularly raising the idea of regulation. Most often states say there’s a dangerous lack of oversight on the private conversations being had; security services have long expressed concerns about those who may push hate speech or plan terror attacks via these channels.

Such apps have also recently been in the news amid claims they were used to spread anti-COVID-19 vaccine content or, in the case of the German elections, conspiracy theories.

On the opposite side of the argument, the strict privacy of these apps has been heralded as a way for whistle-blowers and journalists to communicate safely, ensuring important stories and scandals are uncovered. In countries where democracy is curtailed, they also offer a route for private and unmonitored discussions.

Others believe the encryption is also a much-needed tool to stop companies mining data from unencrypted message platforms, which is often then used, or sold, to influence advertising.

Robin Wilton, director of internet trust at the global non-profit Internet Society, says: “One of the main reasons these apps have grown in popularity comes down to the fact consumers have become savvier towards how their data is managed, and are therefore more aware of end-to-end encryption and its benefits.

“In addition, these apps are often free of charge and are as simple as SMS to use, while delivering enhanced privacy. Therefore, not only do users feel safer, but they also do not have to deal with the inconvenience of having to configure encryption into their applications.”

Building the future of encrypted messaging

Not everyone feels so positive towards these sorts of services, though. For Andersen Cheng, CEO at Post-Quantum, a firm of UK cryptographers, the risks related to such heavily encrypted apps actually led to him closing down a previous creation in 2014, described as “the world’s first and only ‘quantum-safe’ instant messaging system”.

He explains: “In the age of privacy, it was a much-needed win in a period where the misuse and monetisation of user data was widely agreed to be out of control. However, the reality proved vastly more complex when our application subsequently appeared on an Islamic State recommended technical tools list.

“We were getting healthy daily downloads as well, but the eventual decision to switch it off was relatively easy — we would not put profit before human lives.”

Cheng adds: “I firmly believe these privacy-preserving apps have a future but a middle ground must be reached between the two sides of the debate. On the one hand, we have privacy advocates arguing for full and unquestionable privacy for users. However, this makes it extremely difficult for the police and tech firms to monitor communications, detect child grooming and intercept child abuse imagery. It also makes it easier for terrorist organisations to operate undetected.”

On the other hand, Cheng argues government-sanctioned ‘backdoors’ in encryption aren’t the answer either, warning: “A backdoor for one is a backdoor for all, and anyone can walk through it, whether the intended government agency, a hacker, or a malicious nation.”

His suggestion is to have a pre-agreed ‘side door’, adding: “That allows you to split control and responsibility, and one you can only access if multiple parties like governments, private companies, privacy groups and preferably courts each provide their section of the key.”

Amandine Le Pape, co-founder of secure messaging app Element, which claims to be trusted by French, US and UK governments, is also against backdoors. Her aim was to create an open standard for communication that brought benefits to both sides, leading to Matrix – an open standard for decentralised, end-to-end encrypted communication. Element is a Matrix-based app, one of hundreds that now exist, with 38 million users in the network.

Le Pape states end-to-end encryption is “absolutely vital” to secure the modern digital world. “We need end-to-end encryption to protect the 99.9% of the population that are perfectly law-abiding people from the bad actors,” she adds.

However, from the technology providers’ side, she believes there is a need for responsible management and explains that by building a “first-class infrastructure … users (and room/community moderators and server admins) make up their own mind about who to trust, and what content to allow”.

She believes the future is “incredibly bright” but warns: “Backdoors are an absolute disaster. Don’t forget, ‘bad people’ have free and easy access to create their own end-to-end encrypted systems. They will not be using an encrypted system with a wide open backdoor. It only impacts the ‘good people’.”

WhatsApp users have been warned of a scam that involves a hard-to-spot malicious message that appears to come from someone on your contact list.

The scam works when hackers send a user a code via text on their smartphone, followed by a WhatsApp message from someone on their contact list. When the “friend” asks the recipient to share the code, the hacker can easily access their WhatsApp account.

Researchers observed similar attacks earlier this year, but it seems users are once more in hackers’ sights.

Burak Agca, a security engineer at Lookout, told ITPro the incident reflects how easy it is for attackers to acquire users' first factor of authentication, username, and password.

“Messaging apps present a number of challenges to individuals and corporate data security. The rise of significant data breaches across high profile organizations is providing threat actors with vast pools of user accounts to exploit via phishing attacks on messaging apps using those stolen credentials,” Agca said.

“Added to that, we see seismic events like the pandemic driving mobile device usage, and high-profile incidents such as the personal information of members of Parliament from the UK Conservative party app in recent years, further exacerbating the issue.”

Agca added that iOS and Android devices had harbored a significant security gap recently, creating a lack of protection from exposure to malicious links across emails, web pages, apps, SMS, and WhatsApp.

“That gap led to a proliferation of 'surveillanceware' delivered via exploitation of messaging server infrastructure, chained with mobile app and operating system vulnerabilities, resulting in a catastrophic failure in the onboard security measures in place. On average, 40% of versions of WhatsApp used by enterprises are vulnerable. That represents a significant gap in mobile security where patch management solutions focused on mobile devices are not in place,” said Agca.

The news comes as Check Point researchers warned of a new type of malware in the Google Play store that can automatically reply to all incoming WhatsApp messages with messages containing malicious links or text.

By replying to incoming WhatsApp messages with a payload from a command-and-control (C&C) server, a hacker could distribute phishing attacks, spread further malware, spread false information, or steal credentials and data from users’ WhatsApp accounts and conversations.

Fake news has been a thorn in the side of nearly all social media sites, including messaging service WhatsApp. To help combat the spread of false viral stories, WhatsApp has launched a new feature allowing users to fact-check messages quickly.

If someone forwards you a link on WhatsApp to a story that’s been deemed “viral,” you’ll see a magnifying glass button next to the forwarded message. If you click that button, WhatsApp sends the message to Google to search for news surrounding the forwarded message.

While this won’t immediately prove or disprove a viral post, it’ll give the recipient the chance to quickly fact-check the message themself.

WhatsApp doesn’t offer any clarity on how it determines a link is worthy of the fact-checking magnifying glass. All the announcement says is it covers “messages that have been forwarded many times.”

This isn’t the first action WhatsApp has taken to curb the spread of false information. It’s also created a forward label — two arrows — that appear next to any forwarded link and limited the number of times a user can forward a message at once.

While this isn’t a brand-new new feature — Android Police reportedly spotted WhatsApp testing it in March — it is the feature’s official rollout in the US and other key markets, including Mexico, Spain and the UK.

This new fact-checking feature is now available on WhatsApp iOS, Android and web. If you notice your WhatsApp doesn’t have it, you likely need to head to your preferred app store and update to the latest WhatsApp version.

WhatsApp recently submitted an update through the Google Play Beta Program, according to WABetaInfo. This new update brings the current version of WhatsApp up to 2.20.171 and allows users to add contacts by scanning QR codes.

Currently available in beta on iOS and Android devices, users can find the new feature within the app’s settings menu. Users will find options allowing them to display their own QR code or scan another user’s QR code. The feature also gives users the ability to revoke a QR code they’ve shared with someone they don’t want to share personal contact details with.

While QR codes are minor additions to WhatsApp, it’s sure to be appreciated, as adding contacts within the app can be tedious. At the moment, WhatsApp requires iPhone users to add a new contact to their phone’s address book before communicating with them via the app. QR codes would allow users to skip this step.

Though this is sure to make using WhatsApp much more convenient, particularly for iPhone users, it remains to be seen whether or not this feature will make it through beta and to the public.

This all-new feature has been made available to all Android beta users who have updated to the 2.20.171 version. Previous versions may be given access to the feature, though you may want to play it safe and opt for the latest Android beta version available from the Play Store.

For those who don’t have access to this handy feature, hold tight. WhatsApp is reportedly still rolling out the feature and will make it available to everyone in a beta testing environment in the next few days.

Automattic, the creator of WordPress, has made a $4.6 million strategic investment in New Vector. New Vector is the developer of Riot, the flagship Matrix-based messaging app, and Modular, a Matrix-based hosting platform. Formed by the original creators of Matrix, New Vector has also made significant contributions to the development of the Matrix open source project.

Automattic’s investment effectively extends an $8.5 million Series A funding round that took place in the fourth quarter of 2019 and included Notion Capital, firstminute Capital and Dawn Capital. Automattic’s investment in the company brings New Vector’s funding to a total of $18.1 million

In a blog post announcing the news, Amandine Le Pape, COO at New Vector, shared that having Automattic involved in Matrix was huge news.

“This is huge news, not least because WordPress literally runs over 36% of the websites on today’s web – and the potential of bringing Matrix to all those users is incredible,” she continued in the post. “Imagine if every WP site automatically came with its own Matrix room or community? Imagine if all content in WP automatically was published into Matrix as well as the web? Imagine there was an excellent Matrix client available as a WordPress plugin for embedding real-time chat into your site?”

Matthew Hodgson, CEO and CTO of New Vector, shared in Le Pape’s excitement, highlighting New Venture’s interest in open source projects and applauding Automattic for sharing in those very same interests. Hodgson also applauded Automattic for having a similar philosophy when it comes to transparency and overall data ownership.

“We’re incredibly pleased to have Automattic on board. It is one of the most successful and well regarded open source companies in the world,” Hodgson added.

“We’re also looking forward to benefiting from Automattic’s experience in sustainably and responsibly funding and growing open source projects in general. WordPress.com is an excellent example of how one can support development of a project like WordPress without compromising its open source nature,” he continued.

Much like WordPress, Matrix boasts 15.8 million users, including individual users and sizeable organizations. A number of government organizations also use Matrix, the largest deployment being within the French government.

Slack has reached over four million daily active users worldwide.

The cloud-based messaging app, popular among workplaces, is considered the fastest growing business application ever with more than 1.25 million customers paying to use the service.

A number of high profile companies, such as LinkedIn, eBay, Conde Nast, and EA, use the messaging service that now has a current annual revenue of $100 million.

The service allows users to communicate with others through dedicated channels, and customise usability through apps such as Trello, Skype and Dropbox. These and other Slack plug-ins are now downloaded 415,000 times each month, hitting a total of six million downloads since the service launched in 2013.

Nearly half of all Slack users are outside the US, with customers in the UK, Japan, Germany, France and Australia.

"Continued momentum on the Slack platform is an important sign of the expanding role we play in the business software ecosystem," the company stated in a blog post.

"When we say 'Slack is where work happens', we don't just mean people sending messages to one another, but the integrated workflows, business processes, data streams and applications that spin the gears of work for tens of thousands of our business customers around the world," the firm adds.

The San Francisco-based company now employs 650 staff in seven offices globally, with offices in cities such as New York, London and Melbourne.

Slack has a number of rivals for its crown, however, with Facebook the latest to launch a competitor, Workplace, just last week.

Instant messaging (IM) services like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are set to overtake email, according to new research.

Last year, email made up the majority of internet messaging traffic, with around 35 trillion messages sent globally.

Data compiled by Juniper analysts now shows that over the next year, IM services will surpass this figure, accumulating almost 43 trillion messages.

The research cited the low cost of most messaging services as well as the spread of inexpensive mobile internet as one of the trend's key contributing factors.

WhatsApp alone hosts more than 30 billion messages per day, according to the company, and services like WeChat and Snapchat have had similar success.

Also noted is the fact that 80 per cent of emails sent can be dismissed as spam, possibly indicating that by some benchmarks, email has already been surpassed as the dominant messaging form.

However, SMS remains a hugely successful messaging format, particularly for enterprise users. Network provider EE uses SMS to communicate with its customers, and states that 99 per cent of all text messages are read by the recipient, with 90 per cent being read within three minutes.

Further highlighted is the comparatively slow adoption of Over-The-Top internet messaging services in the developing world.

"While there may be a trend towards OTT messaging, SMS is always there in times when Internet access may be impossible, or 3G/4G coverage poor. Its reliability means that messages have a very low non-delivery rate.

"SMS also maintains dominance in regions where featurephone use exceeds smartphone penetration, ensuring it is still a viable means of communication, at least in the medium term."

This research may suggest that IM will quickly replace most other forms of communication, but Juniper's findings indicate that despite the considerable growth, "IM's equivalent per-message revenue return is forecast to be less than 1% of that generated through SMS and MMS in 2019."

Facebook has launched the Messenger website, in a further move separate the instant messaging platform from the core social network.

The launch adds further weight to suggestions that Mark Zuckerberg plans to turn Messenger into more than just an instant chat platform, with monetisation opportunities via e-commerce and video media.

Facebook has said users will be able to add payment details to their Messenger account in future, presumably to allow them to gift virtual goods to friends. The new standalone website is also preparing the development platform for extensions, as Facebook plans to open up the chat platform to developers at some point.

If you're already logged into Facebook from your browser, you can just head to messenger.com and use one click login to open up your message history, create a new message or reply to one you've just received. You are able to mute notifications if you don't want to be interrupted and there's the ability to add photos, emojis or like posts just as you can from the mobile app and within the Facebook website.

Last year, Facebook forced all Messenger users to download the application, discontinuing the ability to read messages from the main social network app. However, a spokesperson said the company doesn't plan to completely discontinue the ability to send and receive messages via the main Facebook website.

A Facebook spokesperson said: "We're launching Messenger for web browsers a standalone web chat product accessible via Messenger.com. Once logged in, people can dive directly into a dedicated desktop messaging experience, keeping their conversations going and picking up where they left off."

Last month, the social network announced it would be launching Facebook at Work, a service aimed at organisations that would allow employees to chat and share files with other workers or even other businesses.

SMS text messages are falling out of favour with UK mobile phone users, as research from Deloitte shows the number sent in 2013 was way down on previous years.

The advisory firm's latest technology predictions report revealed the number of SMS messages sent in the UK fell for the first time last year, as people increasingly turn to instant messaging services like WhatsApp, Viber and Snapchat to stay in touch.

Its research shows 145 billion SMS text messages were sent in 2013, a drop of seven billion on the previous year. Furthermore, the company said it expects this downturn to continue this year and that just 140 billion will be exchanged over the next 12 months.

Meanwhile, the number sent via instant messaging services hit 160 billion, and is predicted to nearly double to 300 billion by the end of 2014.

Paul Lee, head of telecoms research at Deloitte, explained that this was the first decline in texting in the UK since it was invented.

"We have reached a tipping point. But the usage of mobile phone to send messages is stronger than ever. This year, trillions of instant messages will be sent in place of a text message," Lee said.

The trend is reportedly being driven by younger users, who favour instant messaging services because they are usually cheaper to use and easier to send group messages through.

As such, Deloitte claims SMS-based messages will generate more than 60 billion in revenue this year, which is around 50 times the amount produced across all instant messaging services.

Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at comparison site uSwitch, said he's unsurprised by Deloitte's findings.

"Instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and the now widely available BBM, have eclipsed the SMS by offering the chance to send images, reams of video and even audio over the airwaves for free.

"It's no coincidence that 95 per cent of mobile phone contracts are now offering unlimited texts, while data often comes at a premium you can't even give text messages away.

"We're already witnessing the slow death of the landline, and Deloitte's research shows the text message isn't far behind," he added.

Smartphone users are moving away from standard text messaging and voice calls, in favour of rival instant messaging and voice apps, according to an analyst study.

Over 45 per cent of smartphone users now use an "over the top", or non-operator, instant messaging service, found Analysys Mason. And one in five now use voice over IP (VoIP) as an alternative to their mobile company's voice minutes. The analysts found that 20 per cent of mobile VoIP users used the service more than regular cellular voice minutes.

Analysys Mason monitored the behaviour of 1,000 smartphone users in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and the US over a two-month period. The most popular messaging application was WhatsApp Messenger, used by just under 20 per cent of the panel. The most-used voice application was Skype, picked by 79 per cent of VoIP users, or 16 per cent of the total panel. Other VoIP services used included Viber, fring and Google Talk.

And, although only a minority of smartphone owners use VoIP today, the analysts suggested that the number of people willing to use VoIP as their main voice service is growing a trend likely to accelerate as VoIP technologies become more tightly integrated into other messaging services, or even with social networks.

"As more people use VoIP as their primary voice service, the danger for mobile operators is that they become relegated to providing secondary voice services, picking up the 30-40 per cent of calls from users contacting people outside their core calling circle," said Stephen Sale, co-author of the report. "If this occurs widely, operators' roles will be marginalised."

The move to using OTT services could also accelerate, as 4G networks roll out in the UK.

Not all SMBs are lucky enough to have a full-time IT expert and will therefore either pay for a reseller to implement and manage their network security or opt for a more basic product that may not provide everything they need. Blue Coat's new ProxyOne Appliance is designed with these businesses in mind as it provides tough web security, yet installation is claimed to be swift and easy.

The appliance is a well-specified 1U rack system supplied with a Gigabit Ethernet hardware bypass switch so if the appliance fails you won't lose your Internet connection. Although the Gigabit Ethernet card has four ports, only two can be used. Blue Coat explained that it has standardised on these cards for all its appliances, even those that won't use all the ports, since it's easier for it to buy and support one specific network card than different, multiple models A Cavium Nitrox hardware accelerator card is also included for improving performance when scanning encrypted traffic.

The appliance has a one-off fee of 3,100 and a 100-user subscription for updates, warranty and support costs 2,500 per year. Excluding hardware costs, this amounts to a cost per user of 25 which is comparatively expensive for small groups of users, but move up to a 2,000 user license and yearly costs drop to less than 11 per user.

Two deployment options are supported and the easiest one is to use the appliance as a transparent bridge. We went for this method and dropped the appliance in between our lab's LAN and firewall. There will be a brief interruption to services during cabling but this method doesn't require any client configuration.

On completion, the appliance immediately starts downloading its updates and Kaspersky virus signatures which are preconfigured to run at regular intervals. The ProxyOne starts protecting your network straight away as it's configured to block spyware, malware, phishing attempts and proxy avoidance sites.

The second deployment method is to use the appliance as an explicit proxy where it is placed to one side of the network and behind the firewall. Extra work is required as all clients must be set up to use the appliance as their proxy, but this can be automated using PAC (proxy auto-configuration) scripts or AD Group Policies.

The main web interface lets you choose web filtering categories, configure the appliance, view real time traffic and access reports. Blue Coat's own WebPulse cloud service provides the web filtering and has 74 categories to block or allow. The category filter can also be customised with white lists or black lists for allowing or blocking specific URLs, IP addresses and domains. Both the black and white lists are applied irrespective of the categories you may already have selected.

Web filtering performance is extremely good with the appliance delivering impressive results in our tests. We tried to access over a hundred games and gambling sites and were blocked from them all. The social networking category also dealt effectively with sites such as Facebook and Twitter and the P2P category stopped all BitTorrent traffic.

Cyberoam's CR750ai which is better value but nowhere near as easy to install as the ProxyOne.

Remote workers also come under Blue Coat's remit as the ProxyClient software can be installed directly from the appliance. We tested this with Windows 7 client systems where the software received the filtering policies from the appliance and applied them locally. We found the ProxyClient simple to deploy and it can be password protected to stop users removing it from their computers.A local web interface shows blocked sites and also has an option to check for policy updates.

The appliance's configuration web page keeps you posted on all traffic activity with a big pie chart showing monitored protocols including HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. The adjacent line graph can show activity for the last year right up to the past hour while bandwidth savings from the appliance cache are also calculated for you.

We found the appliance cache to be very effective and tested it by downloading a 20MB file from our external FTP test site. Initially, this took over ten minutes to complete, but subsequent runs with the file now cached only took a few seconds.

Blue Coat's reporting is very detailed. The separate console provides a slick dashboard showing all web browsing behaviour, the most blocked sites, detected malware and viruses as well as PCs that are showing signs of being infected. Select any of these and more graphs plus detailed tables of information are provided.

Blue Coat includes a set of predefined reports on areas such as browsing trends, the most blocked sites or users, security threats and so on and these can be scheduled to run regularly. You can also create custom reports, fine tune them with filters and archive the results.

Blue Coat's ProxyOne scores highly for its ease of use as it's a cinch to install and configure. Content filtering performance is excellent and it looks good value for mid-sized businesses that want powerful security at their network gateway that's also easy to manage.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The ProxyOne Appliance delivers on Blue Coat’s claims as we found it simple to install and required only minimal ongoing management. Smaller businesses with a workforce numbering in the low hundreds will find it comparatively expensive, but value increases with higher user counts. Furthermore, its web filtering performed very well in our lab tests and it offers detailed reporting facilities. Including the ProxyClient as standard is also a valuable feature as it can centrally manage your mobile worker’s browsing habits. The Cyberoam CR750ai is clearly a better choice is you want a complete UTM solution, but if you just want easily deployed web security and don’t want extra features such as anti-spam and firewalling then the ProxyOne is a good choice.

Chassis: 1U rack Processor: 2.53GHz Intel Xeon E5540 Memory: 18GB DDR3 Network: Four-port Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express adapter with hardware bypass Storage: 2 x 1TB Seagate Constellation 6Gbit/s SAS in RAID 1 mirror Power: 2 x 650W hot-plug supplies Other: Cavium Nitrox PCI Express hardware accelerator Management: Web browser

Citrix GoToMeeting joins the likes of Join.me and Netviewer as a way for a geographically dispersed group of people to get together online for business-based chat. This is obviously a problem that has long since been solved by the conference call, but if nothing else, meeting online means that attendees can make use of cheaper VoIP calls for aggregate conversations.

Web meetings offer considerably more than this, of course, from instant message-style chartroom communication to the ability to collaborate on common applications from remote locations. GoToMeeting has all of these features, plus a few more besides, for a 29 (ex VAT) monthly fee. In return, up to 16 Mac and PC users (the meeting host and 15 others) can connect to a common online space for both pre-arranged and impromptu meetings, making the service ideal for small workgroups with a telecommuting contingent.

There's a free 30-day trail for testing purposes, and this requires nothing more than an email address and password to access. Registration results in a download of the GoToMeeting client software for Mac OS and Windows, which runs in the background and provides quick access to online meeting features without the need to first log into the GoToMeeting site. Incidentally, GoToMeeting also offers a Java version of its client with the same functionality, which is useful for one-off meeting attendees who don't want the palaver of registering for the service.

GoToMeeting sessions can be created on-demand or set up for some specified future date, with the option of a recurring schedule for regular meetings. In either case, the organiser then sees a floating window with various meeting control options and a large red invitation bubble with an instruction to invite other people to the meeting.

Attendees also have the option to call a standard national rate telephone number to connect to a teleconferencing session for the duration of the meeting, or switch to VoIP for free voice communication. In both cases, the meeting organiser can selectively mute callers, but attendees can always chat freely via typed messages, both to the entire room' or to particular individuals. It's also worth pointing out that this teleconferencing feature can be used without other attendees even being aware of the online meeting side they just need the GoToMeeting telephone number and meeting ID code. The meeting organiser still has complete audio control over telephone-only attendees via the GoToMeeting application window and organisations can even use their own telephone access number rather than the one provided.

For more collaborative meetings, GoToMeeting offers a number of options. First, the organiser can become a host' and share their screen in view-only mode with other attendees, revealing either their whole Desktop or just a specific application window. The host can also doodle on their screen, as can selected attendees, but writing remotely is rather slow and somewhat erratic, with scribbles randomly disappearing in all or part for no obvious reason.

Once in host mode, the organiser can then also cede mouse and keyboard control for the current view mode to one or all attendees. This needs to be used with obvious care granting full read/write access in full Desktop mode poses obvious security risks, but so does letting someone open just a single Explorer window from afar. GoToMeeting also lets the organiser hand over hosting duties to any of the other attendees too, which means they then get the same local screen sharing and control options the original organiser can always resume host duties at any time, though.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

GoToMeeting is a capable online meeting and teleconferencing tool, but the interface is a little confusing with too many quirks for us to give an unconditional recommendation. More to the point, the entry-level service is rather pricey compared to the competition, which means the free Join.me still stands as our online meeting service of choice.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Operating system: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, Server 2003; Mac OS X v10.4.11 or newer Web browser: Modern web browser with JavaScript and Java enabled Broadband internet connection

Networking giant Cisco has announced that it is adding support for the open-source Jabber instant messaging protocol to several of its offerings, including WebEx as well as its range of unified communications services and products.

Officially known as the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), Jabber is already a popular alternative to proprietary consumer systems such as MSN and AOL Instant Messenger. It supports presence data, voice and video chat in addition to plain text IM.

Cisco is actually rather late in adopting Jabber. Consumer IM systems and applications, such as Google Talk and Apple's iChat and MacOS X iChat Server, already support XMPP. A few other enterprise IM and unified communications products also have some level of XMPP support, such as Microsoft Lync Server (formerly known as Microsoft Office Communications Server) and IBM Lotus Sametime. By supporting XMPP, Cisco users should be able to IM users of such rival systems much more easily.

Cisco has yet to confirm when its Jabber roll-out will occur. The vendor bought Jabber back in 2008.

Ask around the average office and the one thing everyone will agree on is that flexible working hours creates happy employees. Sharp managers are realising that it can also improve customer service and extend the time your Open' sign is up.

For many, the office is a vital place for meeting colleagues and exchanging ideas. But there are times when it would be cheaper, more convenient and more productive to work somewhere else: on the train between meetings; in the van after a service call; accessing current stock availability at a client's site; or reading e-mails at an Internet cafe. Besides, emergencies do happen: wouldn't it be great to deal with that last-minute proposal from the comfort of your sofa rather than having a late night at the office?

The days of rigid hierarchies in the office and a strict nine- to-five are long gone. Flexible working the ability to work anywhere at any time has potential benefits for everybody. For the employer, it means staff can use otherwise dead' time to do productive work: they can provide more responsive customer service and make better-informed decisions in real time. The company may save on office costs through needing fewer desks, or be able to expand without seeking new premises.

Flexible working is popular with staff, too. Young people in particular have grown up with mobile phones, instant messaging and social networking Web sites, and expect similar flexibility in their job. Research for Microsoft by the Future Laboratory found that, for almost half (48%) of under 25s, the offer of some flexibility in working hours is more appealing than a higher salary.

Click the link below to read the full white paper.

Facebook announced big changes to its messaging services yesterday, essentially bringing together chat, texts and emails into one place.

Of course, things are never that simple in the tech sphere, especially when it comes to Facebook.

So we look at what the new Facebook Messages will give users and what its impact will be on the email market.

What does it do?

What Messages does is essentially record conversations across form factors and communications methods. So, a user who wants to communicate with another, but wants to have that same conversation regardless of whether they are using email, their mobile or an instant messaging service, can now do so across Facebook.

With this, Facebook has offered users an @facebook email address to help make communicating even more converged.

A user's "Social Inbox" will only contain messages from their friends, as well as friends of friends. All other messages will go into an Other' folder where the user can look at them separately.

For messages from friends who aren't on Facebook, they will also go to the Other' folder. Conversations with these people can easily be moved to the inbox, where they will stay once shifted.

Users also have the option to block emails that are not from friends and can report spam if they so wish. The idea is to stop spam and give users greater control over their email than they have ever had before.

Below is what the central Messages management interface will look like.

When can I get it?

Facebook has not given a specific launch date, but Messages will be rolled out to all users in the next few months.

You will need to get an invitation, but once you have one you can invite your friends as well. You can also apply to be sent an invitation.

Various parties have praised Messages for using its Other' box to filter out any spam, but some have questioned whether this will prove effective.

Graham Cluley, Sophos senior technology consultant, also made the point that Facebook did not explain how they will deal with spam and malware sent from accounts belonging to your Facebook friends something which has become increasingly troublesome for users recently.

The simple truth is, it is highly unlikely your Messages account will block out all threats.

Saying that, the fact that Messages is really just for conversations means you should get much less spam than you do when using other email services.

So is my email data more secure using Messages?

Not really. Expect Facebook to be under some serious scrutiny with how it handles your data, especially given the social networking behemoth will be storing a complete archive of all of your conversations. Users may also be angered at the inability to delete individual messages, only entire conversations.

This kind of conversational data is something hackers will be going after, particularly if more carefree users decide to share banking details across the platform. Facebook will need to be more secure than ever before with the introduction of Messages.

Furthermore, by offering more services, Facebook has essentially opened itself up to more avenues for attack. For instance, users can now attach files that could contain spam messages or even be infected with malware, as Cluley pointed out.

The message is just to stay vigilant and if you do find any bugs, report them to Facebook as soon as you can.

Is Messages really the Gmail killer everyone has been talking about?

According to Facebook, "Messages is not email," regardless of the @facebook option. However, this does not necessarily mean the new service will not challenge the traditional email model.

Firstly, analyst companies have been talking about the transition from using email to social networks for some time, and that includes within businesses. Given the apparent simplicity of use with a less cluttered system, and the fact that Messages is essentially a form of unified communications, the service has clear benefits over other options like Gmail.

However, this service is solely for conversations, not for transactions or advertising, which makes up a significant portion of email. Internet banking, for example, will still rely heavily on standard email. It will not use Messages, that's for sure.

Furthermore, there are no subject lines or what Facebook calls "other formalities" that come with traditional email. Some users will surely want to have these little notifiers, not just because it is what they have grown accustomed to, but because they can provide the useful nuggets of information needed to determine whether an email is worth reading or not.

So, other email clients like Google's will survive, even if usage levels will likely drop due to the quality in Facebook Messages' convergence qualities and ease of use. The email market will be disrupted, but it will not be shattered.

Spam advertising IQ tests over instant messaging services has spiked and scammers are using some smart sales techniques, a security firm has warned.

In one case, the spam message asked the user to click through to partake in a test, which had 11 questions in total, noted Trend Micro fraud analyst Christopher Talampas.

The purported service then prompted the potential victim to sign up and provide a mobile phone number to get the actual results.

Looking down at the Summary of Terms at the bottom of the page, Talampas read that by giving the quiz's creators their phone number, users signed up to a "mobile content subscription."

The subscription fee ranged from $9.99$19.99 a month, Talampas noted in a blog, and this led the researcher to leave the site immediately.

He added: "One may ask why the site would need a mobile phone number just to send IQ test results. Will they use this information to spam me through my mobile phone? Nor is it clear if the answers to the questions actually matter to the IQ score' given to the user, if they actually receive one."

Cyber criminals have been using varying sales tricks of late. A new Trojan was recently spotted by Sunbelt Software, which offered a comparison of anti-virus services.

The products that appeared to do the best jobs turned out to be rogue anti-virus products.

Kaspersky Lab has found a new breed of computer worm that spreads through instant messaging (IM) clients. These include Yahoo Messenger, Skype, Paltalk Messenger, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk and the XFire client used by online gamers.

The research team have found four variants which affect Windows systems. When one of these worms, generically named IM-Worm.Win32.Zeroll, infects a client, it searches for the contact list and sends itself in disguise to all the addressees. The recipient sees a message from the infected machine with a link to an image which turns out to be a malicious file.

A distinctive feature of the worm is it can send a message in one of 13 different languages to fool the recipient. Though the languages include English and German, Kaspersky has found it to be mainly active in countries where Spanish or Portuguese is spoken: Mexico, Brazil, Peru and the US.

The team also noted that it now appeared to be spreading to Africa, India and Europe, especially Spain.

Each worm acts as a backdoor and contacts a command and control centre. A hacker can then orchestrate the attack by classifying all of the infected systems according to country and IM client. This determines which commands should be sent and indicates the local language, which could be useful for distributing targeted spam.

Kaspersky claimed the hackers were creating a malware asset.

"They are infecting as many machines as they can in order to get good offers from other crooks for such things as pay per install, spam and so on," said Dmitry Bestuzhev, Kaspersky Lab's regional expert for Latin America.

Baseball has a small, but loyal following in the UK, and the audience is growing thanks to increased live coverage of games in the US on British television.

With a global audience to support and promote the sport to, Major League Baseball (MLB) - the baseball equivalent of the Football League began looking at ways to boost the popularity and user value of its main web site, mlb.com.

Most fans consider mlb.com to be the online home of baseball information and coverage. The site offers a wealth of information and services, including Game Day, a flash-based audio application that enables fans to follow every pitch as it happens.

MLB.com wanted to make its web site as sticky' as possible so that fans would want to come to the site over and over again, get involved and stay for a long period of time.

It therefore decided to develop a new instant messaging facility to enhance the features of the Game Day service.

At first, the organisation had some concerns about the project. A previous attempt to develop instant messaging had been unsuccessful because the solution implemented had been neither sufficiently scalable to meet demand nor visually exciting enough.

In the previous year, MLB.com's Game Day application had attracted over 85 million users. MLB knew how many concurrent visitors it attracted to its site on game days and it knew what its average year-on-year growth was. It also knew how many fans had used its earlier instant messaging service. Using these figures as the basis for some solid statistical analysis, it anticipated that demand for its new chat

facility would not only be huge but would also grow steadily over time.

Trial and error

MLB interviewed many potential partners for the project and carried out practical product evaluations. However, the solutions that it initially tested failed to provide the flexibility and scalability that it needed. Then, MLB met ProcessOne, a provider of high performance instant messaging servers, at a conference in California.

"We were immediately impressed by ProcessOne's offering," says Joe Choti, chief technology officer for mlb.com. "ProcessOne was head and shoulders above everyone else."

ProcessOne's IM technology is based on ejabberd, an open source IM technology that can run in a cluster mode, making it suitable for large-scale deployments.

The chief executive of ProcessOne travelled to New York to work directly with mlb.com's internal team and specify the precise requirements of the solution. "His help was extremely timely and useful," said Christian Gough, system administrator at mlb.com. "The quality of support that we have received from ProcessOne has been very, very good."

For MLB.com, the visual concept of the solution was just as important as the underlying technology. The organisation wanted to create a Game Day chat facility that would give fans the look and feel of experiencing a live game with other fans.

It based its new instant messaging service on a virtual ballpark. Fans can visit different sections of the online ballpark during a game to join different chat sessions on different topics with different groups of people.

In one part of the virtual ballpark, fans of the home team can be discussing the state of the pitch or the decisions of the coach. In other parts of the ballpark, fans from opposing teams can get together to argue the merits of different players. "This is by-appointment chat," explains Choti. "The ballpark opens when the game begins and closes when the game ends. An automated session manager feature manages the chat rooms and ushers users out at the end of a game, just as they would be ushered out of a real ballpark."

As part of the project, ProcessOne developed a customised module for MLB.com to allow its ejabberd-based instant messaging server to interact with the company's existing web services and authenticate users against its user database. "Users can now log in once to mlb.com and use a range of different services, including the chat facility, without having to log in again to a separate system," explains Gough.

The entire instant messaging solution, including the customised module, was deployed in a very short timeframe, just three weeks.

You've discussed the game, now you can buy the t-shirt

Over the course of each season, it now facilitates different instant messaging sessions at as many as 25,000 venues. This Game Day chat facility is helping to attract more users to the site and is encouraging visitors to stay on the site longer.

This gives the company more opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell from its range of merchandise and services. In addition, mlb.com anticipates that the chat service will also help it to attract higher value advertisers to its site.

"The use of Erlang and clustering in the solution architecture not only ensures scalability, but also adds to the solution's stability and flexibility," says Gough.

Now that its Game Day chat facility is up and running, MLB.com doesn't plan to stand still. Every year it tweaks and enhances its web site with new features. "We are very confident that the ProcessOne platform is scalable and robust enough to support us in whatever direction we go," says Choti.

A growing number of businesses in the UK are banning the use of consumer instant messaging (IM) applications, according to research released today.

Research firm Vanson Bourne polled 100 senior decision-makers working for companies of 1,000 or more employees and found that a staggering 72 per cent of respondents had banned IM.

The survey, produced for ProcessOne, found that about half of IT directors believed staff would be reluctant to use a corporate IM tool instead of public IM software, leaving organisations with little choice but to ban IM completely.

A further 88 per cent of IT directors said that they were concerned about the security risks of allowing public IM use within the organisation.

Despite it being a non-intrusive, real-time communication tool, applications including Windows Live Messenger, AIM and Yahoo Messenger are being shunned by businesses because of security fears, according to the survey.

These fears include the ability for employees to download such software without the knowledge of IT departments and potentially use it to send confidential and sensitive information outside of the business.

However, the survey also found that 74 per cent of respondents believed that IM could provide valuable collaboration benefits to their organisation.

"It is a shame that more businesses in the UK aren't taking advantage of the benefits that instant messaging can bring," said Mickal Rmond, chief executive of ProcessOne.

"Many organisations are torn between wanting to maximise security or gain collaboration and productivity benefits, and clearly maintaining security is winning at this point. However, businesses need to ask themselves weather taking such a knee-jerk reaction as completely banning the use of IM is really the best option for the company."

Indeed, the survey also found that 12 per cent of respondents believed that keeping an audit trail of IM messages sent by employees using consumer IM tools was sufficient to protect the business from data security exposure.

"While corporate IM tools are changing and becoming more user friendly, the best solution is to find a way to allow employees to use whichever solution they are most comfortable with, while providing a way for businesses to enforce their IT policies to protect the organisation and ensure that audit trails are kept," Rmond added.

IT services provider 2e2 is offering a Generation Y' student the opportunity to sit alongside a board of directors for a summer and have a year's tuition fees paid.

The 2e2 Newbury Apprentice Competition' is for full-time students between 17 and 19 years of age in Newbury and is aimed at recognising the new consumer technologies that youngsters use at this age range, such as texting, social networking and instant messaging.

2e2 said that the winner would play a big part in creating and presenting innovative ideas which it hopes will improve productivity of the workforce. It was also with an eye to working with the best talent in the future, many of which would be Generation Y the first generation to grow up with IT and the internet and who are comfortable with mobile phones and consumer internet tools.

"They'll be brought into the business, where they will have an induction to understand what our internal approach is and how we are trying to work with our customers," said 2e2 sales director Richard Ellis.

"The most interesting thing for them is that they will be able to come to board meetings where they can understand how we go about running a 250 million organisation," he said.

The service provider said that it wanted to learn and understand directly from Generation Y individuals rather than just guessing about how new tools would be incorporated into business. The scheme is also going to play a part in a new innovation centre it was building at its Newbury headquarters.

Ellis said: "It was a logical thing to do to look at people who were brought up with this technology and were driving adoption and evolution of these new tools."

"They will come into our business and help us to make the most of these opportunities. It also makes sense for people to be in this age range and local because they will be able get into the offices and because we can invest in our own local community."

Contestants enter the competition through the 2e2 website by finding a new and innovative social networking idea in business, videoing themselves using the mobile or camera and presenting it using YouTube or a Facebook group.

"What is difference is today is that the consumer market really is giving the new tools and the new ways of working," said Ellis. "It's showing corporates what possibilities are out there."

Mobile provider 3 is extending Skype support to its business customers following the success of the service among consumers.

Customers on 3 are able to make Skype-to-Skype voice over IP (VoIP) calls for free, as well as send and receive Skype IM messages using a phone running a Skype client, such as any Symbian Series 60 device or 3's own-brand Skype handset. Skype service will be offered on the Business Mix and Match tariff.

The plans, which start at 12.77 exc VAT per month, offer free Skype-to-Skype calls, free voicemail, free use of Windows Live Messenger, and 300 free 3-to-3 minutes, along with a variety of options for call minutes, texts, and handsets, including the Nokia 95, HTC TyTN II, and the Skypephone.

This new service could prove especially useful to businesses that frequently speak with contacts abroad, as employees can now talk for free via Skype-to-Skype, and keep the costs of internal communications down for small businesses and the self-employed.

Embattled internet provider Yahoo late yesterday announced it was outsourcing its premium voice calling services.

The "phone in/phone out" service will enable consumers to make high-quality, low-cost PC-to-phone and phone-to-PC voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls over the Jajah network to more than 200 countries where Yahoo's instant messenger (IM) service is available.

According to figures released by internet monitor comScore in February this year, Yahoo was the leading US IM application provider, with nearly 97 million users worldwide.

Jajah, an Austrian web application telephony service provider, will take over provision of the VoIP services, which include billing and customer support at the beginning of the third quarter of this year.

"The seamless integration of web and voice interaction is clearly important to our strategic partner Yahoo," said Trevor Healy, Jajah chief executive.

Sabrina Ellis, vice president of Yahoo Messenger added that the partnership will help it continue to provide reliable VoIP network and proven customer and carrier-friendly experiences when using its phone in/phone out services.

Yahoo Messenger users have been able to use the VoIP-based services to make and receive lower-cost voice calls on their PC to and from landline and mobile phones since 2006.

This is the latest tie-up for the internet company that has been subject of an increasingly hostile takeover bid from software maker, Microsoft in recent months and could be seen as part of the strengthening of strategic alliances that will help it to improve operating cost efficiencies and fend off the fend off Microsoft's unwanted acquisition advances.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.