Akonix Systems Inc is offering companies a way to monitor and regulate employees' use of insecure internet services such as instant messaging, with the launch of its first product, L7.

L7 (for "Layer 7", the application layer) will allow IT managers to identify and control use of "rogue protocols" at the level that firewalls may not. Available at the end of the month, the product will initially support popular IM protocols, but "protocol adaptors" for software such as peer-to-peer file sharing will be released over the coming months.

"We expect to release a series of these adaptors as IT departments experience new rogue protocols," said VP or marketing John Gaffney. The company is starting with IM as it is seen as the greatest security risk at present. "IMs meant to be internal are actually going out in clear text over the public internet," he said.

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