Security threats to business from instant-messaging (IM) applications have soared over the past few months, according to IM Logic, a corporate IM systems vendor.

The company’s ‘threat centre’ reported a 50% monthly increase in reported IM incidents and more than 30 new IM threats. According to IM Logic, 81% of reported incidents include IM virus or worm propagation, with 10% hijacking IM file transfer capability and 13% exploiting known client vulnerabilities.