IT Skype controls. Akonix L7 Skype Manager. Yet another Skype "blocker".

We are doing something similar over here with SK Big Brother (less agressive and not intended to block skype traffic, but this is going to be more something like a interface to show IT-managers and Office-manager what happens on the Skype Office ID’s that they need to monitor). The pressure of P2P and IM will continuously rise on companies which creates a market for a new type of controlling device. Imagine 100 employees wasting 2 hours of time per day in a company… Not to think about the other dangers of information leaking. See this interesting slideshow by IPOQUE on this matter(146 KB).

I tested already www.ipoque.com (one of the boxes on the right here) and www.skypekiller.com. Works fine. I don’t use them myself since I don’t have to block, throttle or control anybody. But I can imagine that the market to keep SKYPE OUT of your company is probably as big at the market for SKYPE IN your company. It’s purely a matter of choice. We are moderate, by making an application that will help to keep Skype in business. By giving information on what the users are doing (not spying on their messages, no) but by giving the IT-managers the tools they need to keep the network healthy and the QOS – so much needed for good voice / video – working.

Anyways here is a good story on an «Akonix appliance aims to give IT Skype controls. By John Fontana, NetworkWorld.com, 10/03/06 Akonix Tuesday released a management appliance intended to help corporate IT gain a measure of control over the popular voice application Skype. The Akonix L7 Skype Manager is an appliance that sits on the edge of the corporate network and detects Skype traffic. The appliance lets users choose between one of two policies: block all traffic or allow traffic only to certain IP addresses or subnets on the network… According to Skype, which is owned by eBay, there are 13 million registered users of its software.

The company says 30% of those are corporate users.  And just like instant messaging, Skype and similar VoIP communication applications present security and compliance issues for corporate IT. Akonix was one of the first vendors to offer policy controls for instant messaging when corporate end-users began taking the liberty of loading it up on their desktops and is now using that knowledge for voice communication. 

Akonix is hoping to develop the appliance with a greater range of options for its centralized policy engine, which is similar to one it has for IM, but the challenge is that all Skype traffic is encrypted and looks just like HTTPs traffic. The appliance, therefore, amounts to an on/off switch. It uses a combination of the packet signature and the volume of packets to determine if Skype is generating the packets. “The other thing is that Skype is a port seeker, it won’t always flow through the same ports, and that in itself is a signature,” says Don Montgomery, vice president of marketing for Akonix. L7 Skype Manager sits at the network perimeter with what amounts to an internal packet sniffer. Besides the policy controls, the appliance supports logging and reporting on inbound and outbound Skype traffic, and flags blocked attempts to use Skype.

L7 Skype Manager does not require users to deploy any agents on the desktop.  The 1U rack mounted appliance is based on Akonix’s AkOS operating system, which is a customized Red Hat Linux kernel with additional security and optimized for the L7 Skype Manager.  The Akonix appliance comes in two versions. The first is targeted at smaller corporations and handles up to 1,000 seats. It is priced at $3,495. The second handles 10,000 seats and is priced at $4,995. » more.

Specifications :

• Blocks unauthorized access to AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk and ICQ - including browser-based clients
• Blocks unauthorized access to Skype
• Blocks unauthorized access to eDonkey, IRC, BitTorrent, Kazaa, iMesh, Grokster, Morpheus, LimeWire, and other P2P applications
• Logs and reports on IM and P2P activity by user and protocol
• Prioritizes policies through hierarchical access control lists
• Supports segmented networks through VLAN and multiple NIC support
• Dynamically updates P2P and IM protocol adapters
• Deploys in minutes without touching employee desktops
• Uses advanced signature-based protocol recognition technology to stop even the most elusive P2P and IM applications
• Passively monitors network traffic with no impact on network performance or reliability

Google Search on Akonix L7 Skype Manager.
Product : L7 Skype Manager | Specifications.
Company : www.akonix.com