Text Messaging, IMs a Ticking Time Bomb

Onset offers what it claims is an industry first: the ability to scan and block messages before they are sent, including PIN-to-PIN communications designed to bypass company servers.

"It's like the Wild West when it comes to wireless communications and compliance," said Patrick Corr, Onset vice president of sales. "We feel from a compliance viewpoint—particularly for publicly traded companies and health care organizations—it's a ticking bomb out there. All those messages are going out there into the ether. Can you control them?"

Corr said Onset's technology not only provides for archiving a company's wireless communications but can also keep employees from sending messages they shouldn't, particularly where industry regulations prohibit communications between certain parties.

Onset's Advanced Compliance Tool blocks wireless messages containing certain words, phrases, numbers or sequences of numbers programmed in by compliance administrators. For example, the hospital that got in trouble for releasing, no matter how innocently, Clooney's name could have easily avoided the situation by instructing the Onset platform to block any communications involving patient names or adding the word "Clooney" to the blacklist.

"The vast majority of these incidents are unintentional," Corr said. "They are momentary lapses of thought and judgment."

When prohibited messages are sent, Onset's software blocks the communication, the sender is informed of the illegal use of a company device to send the message and the company's IT department is notified. The blocked message is automatically numbered and archived.

According to Onset, pricing for the service begins at $55 per individual licensee, along with a $3,000 setup fee and an annual fee of 20 percent of total cost for maintenance and support.

"We can block any message you write," said Zack Silbinger, Onset VP of marketing and business development. "The customer puts in the information they want blocked. They can update the rules and it all happens behind the firewall."