Agora Fest 2013

Instant messengers are a popular means of communication. They're easy to use, enables real-time conversations, and are completely unsecureed. Wait, they're not secure?! No, they're not. Every instant message you send can be read by anybody snooping your conversation, including your ISP, that creepy neighbor kid next door who keeps breaking into your wireless network, and any one of several shady government agencies (yeah, I know, they're all shady).

Fear not because there is an easy to use solution called Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging. OTR Messaging allows you to establish an encrypted channel with the person you're conversing with. This encrypted channel ensures anybody snooping on your conversation sees nothing but incomprehensible garbage.

You early birds who arrive on Friday will have a chance to learn about OTR Messaging (you latecomers can track me down during one of the OpenPGP Key Signing Parties and I'll probably be willing to explain OTR Messaging to you, although in a more drunken manner than this presentation).