In this paper, Justin Engler discusses the challenges of secure messaging for normal people based on his presentation entitled “Secure Messaging” from DEF CON 23.
“Secure” messaging programs and protocols continue to proliferate, and crypto experts
can debate their minutiae, but there is very little information available to help the
rest of the world differentiate between the different programs and their features. This
paper discusses the types of attacks used against a variety of messaging models and
discusses how secure messaging features can defend against them. The goal of this
paper is to help inform those who are tech-savvy but not crypto-experts to make smart
decisions on which crypto applications to use.
