Prototype development for secure public instant messaging (IM) at work

This report details the development of a secure messaging add-on for use on public Instant Messaging (IM) networks. It is a continuation of the project discussed in [25]. Due to sociopolitical and monetary reasons, the growth of secure enterprise IM systems has not kept pace with the use of insecure public IM systems. A solution to this problem is to develop a free prototype that is able to secure communications over a public IM network, using a set of guidelines for information security and IM network compatibility. The prototype was able to successfully integrate with a third party IM client and conduct an encrypted session over the MSN Messenger Network. With more development and testing the prototype could become a viable option for use as a secure IM add-on.