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Air Force Launches Encrypted IM Service

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the messages-flying dept.

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."

23 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. UUcode anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Can't send pictures, huh?

  2. No images? by Martin+Blank · · Score: 3, Informative

    Anyone have a copy of uuencode laying around for them?

    --
    You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
    1. Re:No images? by Zeinfeld · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Anyone have a copy of uuencode laying around for them?

      It probably does not allow messages that are long enough.

      Can't think why the Bush administration would not want soldiers sending back more of those happy snaps from Abu Graihb...

      --
      Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
      Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
  3. New Slogan by phaetonic · · Score: 2, Funny

    B a11 U /an B, |_o|_

  4. Perhaps... by neiffer · · Score: 2, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Perhaps... by Etcetera · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.
      --
      Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
    2. Re:Perhaps... by The+Snowman · · Score: 2, Informative

      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 on base.

      Anyway, I have seen a few pictures from digital cameras from deployed Airmen. For the most part we all practice good OPSEC and I have yet to see a picture I shouldn't have.

      --
      24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
  5. RTFA: Not a launch by IO+ERROR · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
    How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
  6. Censored? by Filberts · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  7. Encryption? by AtOMiCNebula · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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 critical information with anyone but themselves...

    ...right? So why the need for encryption to keep the "I hope I'll be home soon, how's the family?" messages private? Unless I'm missing something...

    1. Re:Encryption? by Jeffery · · Score: 2, Informative

      Conventional IM programs are not authorized for use on Air Force Systems. This program is the only way for us when we are overseas to communicate back home in an IM way. and yes, i am in the air force, and used this program during my stint in Iraq/Oman.

      --
      President Bush Supporter
  8. Way to go, chief by Rinisari · · Score: 2, Funny

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

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

    --
    Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
  9. Unsurprising by Sanity · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Users cannot send images
    Gee, I wonder why
  10. what about military secrets? by lawpoop · · Score: 3, Interesting

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

    --
    Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
    -- Pablo Picasso
  11. Security of the client machines being used by mahesh_gharat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  12. Unofficial Explination by Jeffery · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    President Bush Supporter
    1. Re:Unofficial Explination by Mysticalfruit · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

      --
      Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
  13. Re:Do as we say, not as we do by Dhalka226 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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 morons.

  14. How is this possible? by dswensen · · Score: 3, Funny

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

  15. Re:Benefit by Q-Hack! · · Score: 2, Interesting

    wich they could do just as well with the myriad of other IMs already in existens

    Actually all commercial IM's are blocked by the military. The reason givin was a bandwidth thing.

    --
    Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
  16. More a political than technical accomplishment by bzipitidoo · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The US Military is tied up by a lot of rigid rules. They could've been using IPSEC, stunnel, email and PGP, Kerberos, or some other security setup long ago except for the rules. For instance, military personnel aren't allowed to encrypt any data without special permission. Sometimes they will actually use ftp with no protection at all, because it's politically easier to work in the clear than get permission to use openssh. Sometimes an available encryption method, such as DES, isn't "good enough", so instead they operate in the clear. (Well, DES isn't good enough, but it's better than no encryption at all!) Usually, part of getting permission is providing some means for authorities to read the data, which of course breaks the very security they're trying to get.

    The testing and certification process is so onerous and lengthy (up to 10 years) that a system can be hopelessly obsolete by the time it finally is certified, if it makes it. Then there's the abuse of the labels "classified", "secret", and so forth to cover up problems. Known flaws in security related software are often kept secret from everyone-- enemies, rival companies, critics and auditors and security experts, not to mention the users. Very convenient for the vendors and their sponsors. Diebold security anyone?

    There is the paranoid refusal to use something just because it's from outside the US-- it might have malicious code. And there are the export controls that try to keep technology in the US, implicitly assuming the US is the leader in this area. Ironic that the effect is the loss of US leadership as experts set up elsewhere (OpenBSD in Canada, for example).

    And if all that isn't bad enough, the military pushes this idea of responsibility, as in "held responsible" and possibly even sent to jail should any breach in security occur. That makes military base system admins very conservative and risk adverse.

    --
    Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
  17. yes by Errtu76 · · Score: 2, Informative

    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

  18. The military doesn't implement... by PCMeister · · Score: 2, Interesting

    anything that it can't decode in real-time (or in the future via archives) for any given use.

    As for the suggestion to use UU en/decode or other binary-to-text converters: It's potential use was most probably thought of, which in turn would prompt the creation of a script that would scan through and moderate (or flag for review by IT personnel) those messages which contained headers for programs such as UUencode, PGP, etc.

    Like every system, there will always be ways around its security measures. However, there should be no reason why the terminals being used by the soldiers can't be kept free of spyware, keyloggers, and the like (ie. re-imaging workstations at the end of the day.) Either way, the military brass will still have access to the information being sent by soldiers, but would severely limit access to information (and thereby its abuse) by those outside of the group charged with running the system.

    God bless the men and women of the United States Armed Forces!!