#Wickr me note to self code#

Intuitively, in a USM there are only two types of non-adversarial actors users (which make up the end-points in the communication network) and the service provider, whose most important job is to maintain the infrastructure (and, usually, the code base/protocol) upon which the distributed system relies. Unmanaged SM: Put simply, an unmanaged SM is a single global network managed centrally by a single service provider e.g. However, given the growing number, flexibility, and availability of platforms that do meet this security goal, I think it is quite reasonable to demand such a high standard from our tools. For example, it rules out such widely deployed platforms as Slack, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, Threema, PGP Encrypted Email, S/MIME, and many others. It’s fair to say that this security goal does represent a fairly high bar. Put simply, the goal is, above all, to empower and protect the end users.

Suffice it to say that a key aspect is their focus on protecting a user’s ongoing comms both from adversarial infrastructure in the distributed system as well as from past and future compromise of the users’ (and their contacts’) devices. The exact nature of these security notions is an interesting (and rather extensive) topic in its own right but remains outside the scope of this blog post. “future security,” “backwards security,” or “channel healing”). Secure Messaging: In restricting this discussion to “Secure” messaging platforms, I’m focusing my attention on those that provide (at the very least) for what has recently emerged as the industry gold standard in terms of protecting user’s communication namely platforms that provide end-to-end security, Forward Security, and some variant of Post-Compromise Security (a.k.a. Though more powerful and modern platforms may also enable other methods of communication such as file transfers, voice & video (even conference) calling, and screen sharing. Traditionally, we would expect such a platform to provide (at the very least) for text comms. Think: Wickr Messenger, Pro, and Enterprise, etc. On the other hand, if both sender and receiver(s) are online at the same time, then the system provides a (near) real-time communication channel. By “asynchronous,” I mean that when a user goes offline, all of their incoming messages are buffered by the system until they come online again.

Messaging Platforms: For the purpose of this post, a “message platform” is any distributed system which facilitates asynchronous real-time communication between its users. I’ll explain what distinguishes the two from each other and, more importantly, why I believe that those differences make Managed SMs fundamentally more suitable, secure, and powerful for protecting organizations’ communications than their unmanaged counterparts. In this post, I’ll discuss what I believe to be an important, yet sometimes overlooked, distinction to be made between Managed SM (MSM) platforms and (the much more common) Unmanaged ones (USM). Secure Messaging (SM) platforms are an increasingly vital tool for both individuals and entire organizations to protect themselves from a wide variety of threats.

Wickr me note to self