The Triangle

Issue date: 11/12/04 Section: News

Media Credit: Morgen Rossmair

In light of recent allegations on Drexel having the capacity to tap AIM conversations, some students may be looking for a way to make their conversations more secure.

For those who do not know, packet sniffers are a simple way to monitor activity on the network. Sniffers have the ability to capture and record instant messages without being detected. While such programs are marketed to parents and companies to monitor what their children or employees are talking about, anyone could have a packet sniffing program running.

Luckily, protection is simply acquired. Many Web sites offer free encryption certificates that encode AIM conversations, so that the text appears scrambled to anyone intercepting the packets of information.

AIM Encrypt, http://www.aimencrypt.com, is one company that has a free encryption certificate available. The conversation can only be encrypted when both people are using the encryption certificate, so this program works best when an entire community is utilizing it.

Secway, http://www.secway.fr, offers SimpLite, a similar program. SimpLite is available for MSN Messenger, Yahoo, AIM, and ICQ. However, only one instance of SimpLite can operate at a time. Like AIM Encrypt, SimpLite encrypts conversations between SimpLite users, although SimpLite tells users whether exchanges are encrypted or not.

Another possibility is available for people already using an encryption certificate for e-mail. The most recent version of AIM has the ability to employ an e-mail certificate to encrypt AIM conversations with any person using any type of AIM encryption device.

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