Messaging security firm Gwava will this week unveil a product that can archive all messages and phone logs from a company’s BlackBerry users, and make the archive easily accessible for the purposes of disclosure.

Retain for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) is aimed at companies that need to meet compliance requirements, such as those in the finance industry. It keeps a record of all emails, phone calls, SMS and PIN messages from BlackBerry devices used by employees.

“Companies are opening themselves up to problems if they fall under regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley and [heathcare regulatory code] HIPAA, but don’t capture SMS and PIN messages,” said Mitchell Lauer, director of business development at Gwava. In the UK, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has also recently brought into force new regulations that require more information to be recorded.

About 70 per cent of US companies are banning SMS and PIN messaging because there has been no easy way to do this, Lauer said. However, both are useful technologies for business. In particular, PIN messages, which are sent directly from one BlackBerry handset to another, can be used in disaster recovery situations.

“Many BlackBerry users assume that a PIN message is secure because they think it’s untraceable,” said Lauer, adding that this is not the case. He cited the example of a Canadian bank employee who was caught sending confidential information via PIN to an associate. However, it took the bank a year to sort through its records and identify all the evidence.

Retain for BES comprises two components; an agent that sits on the company’s BES and logs all messages to a SQL database: and an Archive Viewer desktop tool used to search the log for specific information and generate reports for disclosure. No changes need to be made to the actual BlackBerry devices, according to Gwava.

“A BlackBerry server log is just like a giant spreadsheet, and utilising this information can be difficult, [so] there’s a huge value proposition to any company having this capability,” Lauer said.

Retain for BES will be available in the UK through resellers and BlackBerry specialists, according to Gwava. It costs about £20,000 for up to 20 users.