New Secure IM Client from NTT Due this Year

An anonymous reader writes "NTT in Japan has developed a new TLS-based secure instant messaging system that it says will comply with corporate compliance regulations, such as the post-Enron Sarbanes-Oxley Act. There's a PC version, as well as a Java one for i-Mode cell phones."

Comments

This is just one more attempt ....

[zappepcs]

This is just one more attempt, IMO, to realign privacy and security values to where they were before new technologies. Where IM is replacing conversations around the water cooler in the workplace, securing it from snooping is an okay thing. Logging it as official corporate communications is getting into, perhaps, dangerous territory. There is the part where it is a company resource, but when it comes close to being thought police, it is dangerous.

I think that modern society is still trying to find a place of 'normalcy' in the midst of new technology. I don't believe that there is an equivelant of IM prior to the advent of IM, other than private conversations. Recording private conversations is still not an okay thing to do. Comparing this to text based conversations that deaf/mute people have with text based phones, it all gets a bit confusing as to what is okay to record and what isn't.

Until it is clearly understood what is okay to snoop and record and what is not, people will make mistakes in what they allow to be recorded, and why, and how those recordings are used. No manner of encryption will fix the real issues. It seems that the only secure mannner to communicate is whispering so that no one can hear what is being said.... very low tech!

Source?

[xtal]

If I can't look at the source.. it ain't secure.

Re:Source?

[Anonymous Coward]

If I can't look at the source.. it ain't secure.

Just because you can't see the source doesn't necessarily make it insecure. It just makes it harder for you to verify that it's secure.

You can't see the source code for the computer in your car. Does that make it unsafe to drive?

Re:Source?

[lasindi]

If I can't look at the source.. it ain't secure.

No ... if you can't look at the source, you can't know that it's secure. Open source is great, and IMHO it produces more secure products in general; but open source isn't some magic spell that makes programs secure. Firefox, Linux, KDE, etc. all have security problems now and then. Whether or not they aren't as bad as their proprietary counterparts is debatable, but nothing is 100% secure, FOSS or not.