Jan Goldberg lectured on IM cryptography

One of the creators of the Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR) protocol, a well-known information security specialist, Professor Jan Goldberg (Ian Goldberg) gave a great lecture on the subject of IM protection in the framework of his university course Computer Security and Privacy at the University of Waterloo. The professor spoke in detail about the OTR protocol and its importance in the modern era of total wiretapping without warning .

The OTR protocol is one of the most reliable methods for protecting IM sessions. Special attention is paid to the authentication of the interlocutor (through a linked pair of public and private keys), as well as to protecting the conversation sessions themselves from listening to the outside. At the same time, the logs are not specifically protected against changes, because every single message in the chat is not digitally signed.

OTR technology is implemented as a pidgin plugin for Linux and Windows, and is also supported by the Adium X program for Mac OS X. There are third-party plug-ins for Kopete, Miranda and Trillian messengers.
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A full video of Goldberg’s lecture can be downloaded as MP4 (1 h. 10 min; 434 MB), via AVI torrent or in other formats .

via Slashdot