St. Bernard Software today announced an upgraded version of its iPrism security appliance that adds instant-messaging filtering through integration with its LivePrism managed security service.

The iPrism 6.0 appliance, expected to ship next month, will provide corporate network managers with more controls for IM filtering, including specific policies for each user. It also adds spam and virus filtering for IM and a message archiving service. Earlier versions of the iPrism Web-filtering and antivirus gateway are limited to simply blocking or allowing IM messaging types.

"We're upgrading the software in our 6.0 appliance to be able to provide what we call 'hybrid IM filtering,'" says Andrew Lochhart, vice president of marketing and product management at St. Bernard. The 6.0 version of the appliance can route IM traffic to the St. Bernard data center to apply security controls customers select as part of the LivePrism managed messaging service.

LivePrism is based on the Singlefin managed service acquired two years ago by St. Bernard. (Compare messaging security products and services.) 

Hybrid IM filtering via the integrated appliance and LivePrism service is expected to cost about $10 per user per year.