Cue up the "Mission Impossible" theme music. Self-destructing messages have been around for a long time. Now, they're becoming more pervasive, particularly on the consumer side. Popular apps like Facebook Poke and Snap Chat immediately come to mind. Certainly, if misused, as they often are even on the consumer side, there's (surprise, surprise) yet another threat to enterprise data. But I can't help but think that they may provide a solution to the perpetual nature of email ... that it never goes away.

No: On the sky is falling side of the equation is an article from Boonsri Dickinson on InformationWeek entitled "New BYOD Threat: Email That Self-Destructs". "What happens when employees send messages to each other and to others outside the organization that are deleted by default?" asks Dickinson.

Yes: One the positive side, time-based messaging reduces an organization's exposure to errant or sensitive data falling into the wrong hands. It doesn't mean that these messages aren't logged, but that recipients have limited access to them. There are variations on this already (secure document delivery platforms), but making these tools more easily accessible would encourage use.

Impediments: The challenge isn't technology or meeting compliance guidelines. It is pervasive access to the technology. There needs to be a pervasive identity to send the message to ... not just an email box or SMS number. In the consumer world, we see Facebook profiles filling this role. On the business-side, LinkedIn fills this role. For self-destructing messages to work, it needs to work with the largest possible group of intended users. It is unclear who, what or when these issues will be worked out ... but they will.

Bottom Line: Solve one threat to enterprise security and another one is sure to pop-up. Just because there's downsides to self-destructing messages, doesn't mean they shouldn't be considered.

Do you time-restricted messaging tools at your organization? What are they? What have the results been? Share your thoughts in the comments below.