Onset Technology, a Waltham, Mass., company that specializes in developing wireless enterprise products, has released a new software tool that allows companies to do just that by giving IT departments the ability to scan, block or archive all wireless e-mail communications sent over their enterprise networks.

The tool, which the company calls the METAmessage Advanced Compliance Tool (ACT), is implemented from a central server that lets IT managers push wireless messaging rules, lexicons and user lists directly over the air to enterprise devices. Thus, IT departments will be able to actively manage wireless e-mail sent from both business and personal accounts, SMS, BlackBerry PIN-to-PIN and instant messages prevent data loss and to ensure compliance with archiving requirements under regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

"Until now, wireless messaging… has been the Wild West of compliance," says Vivian Tero, the program manager for compliance infrastructure at IDC. "METAmessage ACT means no excuses for compliance managers as they can now minimize the risk of inappropriate smartphone messaging."

Among other things, METAmessage ACT is able to monitor words, patterns and strings for sensitive content such as medical patient information or credit card data that are being sent over through mobile devices; to create blacklists that establish specific controls for which users and groups can and cannot communicate with one another; and to alert senders and IT managers about inappropriate communications and to block those communications before they even leave the user's handset.

Onset's compliance tool is compatible with all Research In Motion BlackBerry devices, and the company is working on getting them into compliance with Windows Mobile devices, Symbian devices and iPhones. METAmessage ACT is available for use with all major wireless carriers in the United States, the company says.