Tools for monitoring instant messaging (IM) have been around for a while, but now AOL itself is selling the AIM Enterprise Gateway to completely control and record incoming IMs.

IM protocols are fairly easy to read so this is a relatively easy thing to develop, especially by the company that wrote the protocol. They are planning on releasing an IM client with encryption next year. Probably for a price.

What's next, an AIM Enterprise Gateway that can decrypt messages from the encrypted clients? *shudder* A pretty good business model though, I must admit.