Instant messaging can be a benefit to business when used properly, but IM is often abused by employees and poses significant liability and security risks.

IM programs often support more than just simple text-based chat. They may also include peer to peer file transfer capabilities, which can pose security risks in two ways. Internal users can send documents that may be confidential out of your network, circumventing your network's perimeter defenses against file sharing programs or e-mail attachments. On the other hand, external users can send files that might contain viruses or malicious code to users on the internal network. In addition, a liability risk arises if employees use the file transfer feature to share copyrighted music, movie or software files in violation of the law.

WFilter enables administrators to set rules for messenger usage.