Untraceable Messaging Service Raises a Few Eyebrows

netbuzz writes "A messaging service called VaporStream announced today at DEMOfall will allow any two parties to communicate electronically without leaving any record of their interaction on any computer or server. Messages cannot be forwarded, edited, printed or saved. After they're read, they're gone."

Comments

ScatterChat

[dshaw858]

I somehow thing that this wouldn't be totally secure. Man in the middle attacks? DNS attacks, spoofing the "web based chat"'s interface? There are lots of ways to mess this up. If I was going for anonymity and protection, I'd use Cult of the Dead Cow's newly released "hacktivism" tool, ScatterChat. It basically uses strong encryption plus Tor (optionally, I think) to make chats as close to perfectly secure as a major chat appliance has come. It's a great idea, many years in the making. I'd go with that, myself.

- dshaw

PS: No, I'm neither affiliated with ScatterChat or CDC in any way.

Re:Microsoft has been shipping this since 2003

[sporkme]

Yeah, the flash demo basically states that it is headerless email, deleted on the sender system when sent, deleted on the server when downloaded, and deleted on the receiver when closed. Stripped headers mean that the sender/recipient combo is not included in the message, but exist temporarily and separately. The message can be compromised but the source cannot be determined at the recipient end, and vice-versa. The article leads one to believe that it is an instant messenger. This sort of thing was done before via anon email. Basically, it seems to be ~post as AC~ then lurk, but for your email. It has always been amusing to me when the word 'trustworthy' appears in a Microsoft title, though.