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Is there an easy way to have secure IM chats?

I travel a lot and often find myself needing to chat with colleagues back at the office via instant message (usually MSN but sometimes Yahoo). Problem is, I really don't want everyone else in the café using the open wireless network from sniffing the discussion. Is there some secure solution that's easy and portable?

Dave's Answer:

Some of the IM clients out there support secure chats, but I'm going to suggest that you check out a different service that's very cool and is a great solution that encompasses the situation when you don't even have your own computer, in fact, and are stuck using a public or loaner system: Meebo.com.

Meebo is a Web-based multi-platform IM client, so all you need is access to a reasonably modern Web browser and the Internet and you're able to jump on to AIM, MSN, Yahoo's YIM, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber. All at once. Even better, if you have multiple accounts on a single service as I do, you can also specify all of those too, which is very cool.

Here's what it looks like when you're setting up an account:

That's all well and good, but what about that secure connection?

Turns out that while they don't advertise it, Meebo lets you connect to their server using an SSL connection and it stays secure from that point on. So, instead of going to http://www.meebo.com/ to log in to your IM services, go to https://www.meebo.com/. (note the https rather than the normal "http")

Now it's not completely secure point to point with your IM buddy, but it does protect you on the wifi network, which is really the most risky hop of the communication anyway.

Hope that helps you out. I'd also recommend you check out our ebook Connect Safely Wireless Security and Privacy Guide for lots more tips on how to be secure on an open wifi network, and much more.

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Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics (Article 7004)
Tagged: im, meebo, msn, network security, open wifi, wifi, yim
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Comments

Great article!

BTW, you've got a small typo in your link to https://www.meebo.com/ -- a semi-colon instead of a colon, which means the link doesn't work.

Regards,
NeilS.

Posted by: Neil S at November 23, 2006 5:06 AM

Doh! Fixed it. Thanks, Neil! :-)

Posted by: Dave Taylor at November 23, 2006 8:39 AM

Greetings! For secure IM chats, consider a client that supports Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging for secure conversations.

http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/

Of course, so will those you're chatting with! Perhaps this is why signed/encrypted email hasn't taken off in a big way just yet.

Still, I recommend checking it out. Start a trend why don'tcha!

Trillian (Windows) and gaim (Windows, Debian and Ubuntu) all have OTR variants, and Adium X (MacOS) features OTR out-of-the-box.

I've also used meebo in a variety of situations when my laptop was unavailable. Excellent for use in libraries without wifi, f'rinstance. Because, you know, everyone goes to the library to chat over IM ... ;)

Posted by: Joe D'Andrea at November 28, 2006 8:30 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!