Internal corporate networks are beginning to use instant messaging to communicate
between employees. I sense impending disaster in this; the traffic goes OUT of the
network in PLAIN TEXT, PAST the DMZ and INTO the INTERNET! AOL does not live in your
company!
As a solution, the SILC server can be integrated with Breezy and the SILC client or
GAIM plug-in can be added to allow a corporate secure instant messaging
infrastructure to be freely and easily set up. SILC is multi-media conferencing, so
it's good for video conferencing as well as text and voice.
For corporate networks, a SILC server could be set up with the SILC client or GAIM
distributed around to the employees. The networks can be individually secured for
employee and executive connections, and can be tunelled over a VPN like TLS or IPSec
(not that it matters with an encrypted service anyway). This would allow free
conversation without routing the plain text conversation out through the Internet;
the conversations are encrypted and stay in the internal network, so confidential
information is not typically leaked.
Instant messaging is a powerful tool, and private IM networks are excellent corporate
tools. Using a public IM network brings HUGE security considerations, as the
firewall can't (easily) allow AIM or MSNIM traffic "to only certain people" "only if
it doesn't contain CI" "only if it's encrypted" in any combination. It's time to
rework this for them before they screw something up.
http://www.silcnet.org/software/download/server/: http://www.silcnet.org/software/download/server/
Could you supply some links to the SILC server and gaim plugin, please? I'm
interested!