Re: a project for those who like it

[Marc Horowitz <marc@MIT.EDU>]

>> I have been working on an idea or a secure chat system for internet
>> and have up with some ideas.

A system such as this already exists at MIT.  It's called zephyr.
Currently, it uses kerberos (private-key) for authentication, and uses
cleartext, but the system just pushes around bits.  There's no reason
a message couldn't be a public key encrypted message.  ACLs already
exist (based on the kerberos authentication), but the system is
capable of supporting well over a thousand simultaneous clients, so
they might not be necessary.  The protocol is based on UDP, and is
well-documented.  Unix and macintosh clients exist; there are PC
clients in development.

If people want more information (up to and including the technical
papers), look on athena-dist.mit.edu (it's a mail server, too).  Or,
I'll be happy to discuss it on the list.

		Marc