Secure Real-time Communication?

jblackman asks: "I'm a big user of ICQ, AIM, and their ilk, but it recently occured to me that they're probably completely insecure. I'd like to continue using messaging programs, but I'd hope to have at least the option of encrypting my communication. Are there any ideas on how to accomplish this? "

Secure communication

[Anonymous Coward]

One option would be to set up an IPSEC or a SKIP connection at either end. Then, any direct messages would be encrypted. However, indirect communication (eg: messages sent to the server, as with ICQ, when the other person is disconnected) would still be in the clear.

(I can't think of any way of using IPSEC via the server, as connections need key exchanges.)

However, as this is for real-time communication, IPSEC and SKIP seem very viable options, as they are stable, don't require you to mess about with the communications software, are platform independent, and offer very good security.

Jabber will

[Thomas Charron]

Eventually, once we have Jabber out the door, we will support this type of cummunication. Check out www.jabber.org [jabber.org]

Private?

[JamesKPolk]

Well, SSL does keep 3rd parties from sniffing the messages, but it doesn't prevent AOL from reading your messages.

There is the Caliban project...

[icepick]

John Bucy at CMU is working on it. I've met John once at a Nashville 2600 and he's pretty cool (if all the 2600 groups were as cool as the 615-2600 group, 2600 would kick a**. http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~bucy/IM/ [cmu.edu]
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Top Secret Messenger

[Elm Tree]

There is an addon for ICQ called Top Secret Messenger [encrsoft.com]. It's a public key Eliptical Curve Cryptography thing. Last time I checked the interface was still a little buggy but i haven't upgraded in a few months.

Secure AIM

[nigel]

If you're using TiK for AIM, you can encrypt your messages with SSL. However, both you and the other end will need to be using an SSL enabled TiK in order for your conversation to be secure. See http://www.oaks.yoyodyne.com/tik/ssl.html [yoyodyne.com] for more information.

Secure real-time communication....

[knarph]

Well phunc is working on something sort of like this.
Basicly it's an irc server/client package that all traffic is encrypted, i.e. client/server server/server.

We're implimenting the security in modules, so if you don't want to use say blowfish, you drop in the oh for this case ummm triple-des module and away you go.

We're not too close to shipping it but you can check out the project page at http://www.phunc.com/projects/secureirc/index.html if you want.