Air Force Launches Encrypted IM Service

nomrniceguy writes "U.S. Air Force's Print News Today announces a new instant messaging service for enlisted people stationed abroad to communicate with their families and loved ones. Users cannot send images, audio or other documents through the system. Messages are also encrypted to prevent unauthorized access."

UUcode anyone?

Can't send pictures, huh?

No images?

Anyone have a copy of uuencode laying around for them?

New Slogan

B a11 U /an B, |_o|_

Perhaps...

They should be more worried about soliders posting their digital camera photos to public sites than what could be hacked through instant messages...

Re:Perhaps...

Keep in mind this is the Air Force. We don't have Soldiers, we have Airmen. We don't fight on the front lines, for the most part we fly desks far far away from the bad guys. The closest I've been to combat is watching it on CNN from the comfort of my home

Re:Perhaps...

It's the causal daily chatting to a spouse/partner or story-telling to their children that seems confidental that gets them going and can be colourful and can contain lots of details.

Loose lips sink ships. I wish the trolls here would try to understand that very simple concept.

RTFA: Not a launch

This instant messaging service has been in use for a couple of years now. However it was limited to military and contractors. Now it's open to family members. The airman has to sponsor you by entering in your email address, and then you receive login instructions.

Censored?

No media, huh? I guess that means we can go back to using our imaginations to visualize the horrors reported back by our soldiers abroad.

On a lighter note, it's nice to see that they will have an easily surveilled method to connect with family from abroad

Serious Question...

Does it run on Linux?

Re:Serious Question...

According to the article, it isn't OS-dependent, rather it seems to function in a browser, not as a standalone program.

yes

OS, Web Server and Hosting History for www.my.af.mil
http://www.my.af.mil was running AkamaiGHost on Linux when last queried at 24-Dec-2004 05:38:53 GMT

Encryption?

What's wrong with Jabber, AIM, MSN, or any other chat medium? Sure they might not have encryption (unless the Jabber server has SSL enabled), but then again, I'm sure there's some rule that says that the soldiers shouldn't be sharing secrets or mission cr

Way to go, chief

Text only, eh? To the multitudes, I present two functions, base64_encode [php.net] and base64_decode [php.net].

Email is still all text and probably always will be :-p

Modern browser?

"If you are using a modern browser, that's all you need to use the chat," he said.

I guess that rules out links, w3m, and lynx.
Think it works with Firefox or Mozilla?

Unsurprising

Users cannot send images

Gee, I wonder why [thememoryhole.org]

Re:Unsurprising

"It doesn't allow you to embed images or sounds or documents, where somebody could have put malicious code," Colonel Besselman said.

Ahh, they're obviously worried about malicious images like .jpg.vbs. Or perhaps malicious looking images hehe.

what about military secrets?

How encrypted is this? Can military censors read this? What's to stop someone blabbing about deployments or positions?

Trillian's been encrypted for years...

Seriously, Trillian has been encrypted for at least 4 or 5 years... (it only encrypts between 2 Trillian clients).

Anyone know why the AF would come up with their own system? Is it just to be able to backdoor it for security reasons?

Security of the client machines being used

No matter what kind of encryption technology they have implemented for their IM; if the soldiers are going to use the webbrowsers in cybercafes in the foreign land. Then god help them. I have been here in KSA (Kingdome of Saudi Arabia) for six month now. All the MS-Windows systems in cybercafes are full of spywares, keyloggers and whats not. Most of these problems due to administratative rights given to all the clients who need just a browser. No matter what technology one uses over netwrok but its very difficult to get rid off key loggers. After experiencing all that crap I bought a dial-up internet connections cards (Nesma and Zajoul)... both the connections are pretty slow for me though.. compared to my home country dial-up.. Now I can browse through Firefox with antivirus and personal firewall on.... Pretty safe feeling now. I get atleast one incoming connection to my system from the external internet every five minutes. I suspect these are from other dailup users(probably infected) only. Withought a firewall and unpatched MS-Windows system you will be a deadduck in hour or so. I think they should give them secure client machines also. That will help them in better way. I read about the massive bandwidht they are enjoying in this IRAQ war. If they are routed through their own satellites then nothing like it.

Unofficial Explination

I am in the Air Force, a 2E251, job title is "Computer, Network, Cryptographic, and Switching Systems Journyman". here is how i can best explain why it is encrypted and why we cannot use regular IM products (aim, icq, etc etc...) It isn't that classified or top secret messages are being transmitted across this system, it's simply to keep the enemy from deducing simple things and protecting the members families. Think of it this way, if you have 100 people from the same network ID talking about hopping on a plane for a "Big Mission" the enemy might beable to figure out what's going on. another good reason for encryption is so that when members are like, "Boy, i can't wait to go home for christmas and go to grandma's so and so's house this year" what's to keep enemy's/Terrorists from taking from there grandma's name, finding out where she lives, and then kidnaps her to black mail you, or just out right kill her to hurt the morale of all troops in the sand box. also, due to AFI regulations, regular IM programs are not authorized for use on Air Force Systems, plain and simple, for those exact security reasons. i was in Iraq/Oman for a while back in the summer of 03, and i used this program alot. Thank you all, and i hope this was useful.

Re:Unofficial Explination

Actually one of my friends whose in the Army had something like this happen to one of people in his squad. He started getting harrassing emails from someone who identified themselves as part of the Iraqi resistance and then started naming his family members in the states that their assosiates would hurt if this person continued to serve. Last I knew the FBI got involved, etc. So, this sort of thing is already happening.

How is this possible?

This far into the discussion and no one's made an "AIM High!" joke yet? C'mon, people.

Re:How encrypted?

This is one of those situations where i'd be really inclined to distrust it unless it were open source.

I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that all messages are logged and can be decryped by the appropriate authorities.

The move of offering

Re:Benefit

it allows them to offer an approved solution to soldiers without them having to spend time researching all the other possibilities.

Re:Do as we say, not as we do

Yeah. I'm sure no other country in the world is trying to listen in on US conversations, nor are there any countries in the world who try to protect themselves from other countries doing the same to them. It's exclusively a USA-only thing.

Fucking moron