IM Security

A major security issue with Instant Messaging in a corporate environment is that it can be used to disclose confidential information, either through the in-house user directly sending to another IM user across the Internet, or through someone “sniffing” the in-house network to mine unencrypted instant message communication between employees.

Secure IM

Until recently and much to the disappointment of fellow geeks, Tcat didn’t Do IM. The reason is the preceding Success Tip. And in 2004 that changed. AOL has broken its previous promise to support SIMPLE (Session Initiation Protocol for Instant and Presence Leveraging Extensions.) However Yahoo in the 1st quarter of 2003 is set to release an IM that will offer encryption based on SSL, authentication and name/space control through corporate directories, and integration with auditing and protection tools. Similarly, Microsoft plans to offer a secure IM offering for business next year, as part of Windows .Net Server. Available today are multiple secure IM packages for internal corporate use (which lack interoperability with standards like AIM/ICQ), the Magi Secure IM proxy system which proxies AIM and MSN Messenger between corporate Internet gateways using PKI for authentication and SSL for confidentiality²⁰¹, and the Trillian IM client which can send encrypted messages via AIM and ICQ. The issue Tcat has had with all this is “forcing” another person to purchase a IM security program.

Given this, along with the current state of speech to text and enough wireless hot spots, 2004 became the year I feel the technology will be advanced enough to use IM without losing sleep over security. I found a low cost program for myself that has a free version for someone using a single IM service²⁰².