Former Flash CEO Francis de Souza said there was a recognized need in the financial industry for secure instant messaging that sat behind a firewall. Hurdles remain The next step may be figuring out how to secure instant messaging for operation outside of the firewall. He added that convincing his staff to implement instant-messaging service was difficult because of security concerns. With users from remote locations needing access to the server, a network administrator will have to open the firewall. Later this month, he said, the company will begin beta testing a proxy server that would solve that problem.
Some analysts agree that security concerns remain.
Security problems aside, users of these products must continue using the same software to communicate. Until there is interoperability, the new applications and widespread imple mentation appear more distant than instant.