Tag Archives: Jabber

Briar – Next Step of The Crypto Messenger Evolution

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Update: Há uma versão em português. Who still remembers ICQ, AIM and MSN? My first messenger was ICQ and I liked the fact that it was instant. In those days, I didn’t think much about security and was probably too young anyway. We can count ourselves lucky if those tools even used transport encryption. This means that our messages are encrypted on the way from our computer to the server, so nobody can see the content of the messages while they are in transit. Whoever has access to the server however can know the content since all messages get decrypted … Continue reading →

XMPP Interview und Document Freedom Award

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Wie Matthias scheibt, hat dieses Jahr die 1&1 Internet AG den deutschen Document Freedom Award erhalten, weil sie für alle E-Mail-Kundinnen auch automatisch einen XMPP-Account bereitstellen. Der Document Freedom Day in Deutschland stand also ganz unter dem Motto I’M the World! Ich habe kurz vorher dem Deutschlandradio Wissen ein Interview (leider nur mp3) gegeben und dort XMPP bzw. Jabber erklärt. … Continue reading →

Microsoft denies certain countries access to its messenger

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My recent blog entries were about Skype and about how companies might eventually abuse the power they have over some of our technology. Many of my arguments against Skype also apply to Microsoft’s instant messenger. Now Microsoft gave one more example that this abuse actually happens. Ars technica writes: Microsoft this week decided to turn off its Windows Live Messenger service for five countries: Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan, and North Korea. […] The user is not informed as to the actual reason for the block. Currently, it’s not clear how broad the block is or how long it will last. … Continue reading →

ICQ Locks Out Users

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As of today, users with old or non-official ICQ Clients are no longer able to log into the ICQ Network. They received no prior notice and just get the message that their client is too old. The reason for this is still not known, but it has been speculated that it is due to ICQ wanting all users “upgrade” to the new ICQ6 Client. Many users reported the problem in the official ICQ support forum and the first fixes for the problem already appeared in the net. This incident clearly shows once more that we should not surrender our freedom … Continue reading →