Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Wednesday 29 May 2002, 3:54 PM
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Friday 10/05/2002
News that AOL is about to provide secure, encrypted chat over IM for corporations can't come too soon here. Companies that use one of the various forms of IM to keep their scattered offices together -- or just for interdepartmental nattering -- often overlook the fact that the messages are all splurged over the Net in clear text. Not good enough.
And of course, for those of us who run substantial business and espionage networks over the Internet during working hours from our office desks, it's a source of constant worry that some of our extramural dealings may be detected by our IT departments and passed on to our managers. Bit tricky to explain the insider dealing away with that sort of evidence. And what's the point in telling an operative in Omsk to take out the mayor and make it look like a CIA plot, if some spotty system manager in an ISP runs a packet sniffer and splurges the news to the world?
No, encrypted IM can't come too soon. It'll make the world a safer place for skulduggery, mischief and misappropriation of office supplies.
To have your say online click on TalkBack and go to the ZDNet forums.
News that AOL is about to provide secure, encrypted chat over IM for corporations can't come too soon here. Companies that use one of the various forms of IM to keep their scattered offices together -- or just for interdepartmental nattering -- often overlook the fact that the messages are all splurged over the Net in clear text. Not good enough.
And of course, for those of us who run substantial business and espionage networks over the Internet during working hours from our office desks, it's a source of constant worry that some of our extramural dealings may be detected by our IT departments and passed on to our managers. Bit tricky to explain the insider dealing away with that sort of evidence. And what's the point in telling an operative in Omsk to take out the mayor and make it look like a CIA plot, if some spotty system manager in an ISP runs a packet sniffer and splurges the news to the world?
No, encrypted IM can't come too soon. It'll make the world a safer place for skulduggery, mischief and misappropriation of office supplies.
To have your say online click on TalkBack and go to the ZDNet forums.
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