Akonix Releases Threat Report

SAN DIEGO -- Akonix Systems, the provider of the most deployed instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products in the world, today announced its Security Center (www.imsecuritycenter.com) team tracked 26 attacks against IM networks in April, the largest number of threats this year, surpassing the previous high of 18 in January 2006.

Further research from the Security Center revealed that the increase in IM threats between January 2004 and January 2006 was 17,933%. Since Akonix first starting tracking IM threats in January 2004, the company has protected its customers from a total of 578 new IM threats.

New worms identified in April include VB-ATA, Skenkly, Gaixinh and IMFlood. The most common attack was the MYTOB virus, which had three variants of the original virus. Overall, Akonix security analysts issued a total of five new security policy updates, using the industry's only dynamic IM malware, spim and protocol update system. This automatically pushes updates to customers and blocks worms and viruses in real-time at the network perimeter.

"There was a lull in IM attacks during the first few months of this year, but our security researchers are finding that virus writers are at it again," said Don Montgomery, vice president of marketing at Akonix Systems. "The frequency of these worms catches many companies off guard, but our customers are proactively protected with automatic updates. IT administrators have enough to worry about, so by deploying Akonix, they can feel confident that their networks are protected from IM attacks."

Akonix Systems Inc.