Instant Message Security - Analysis Of Cerulean Studios Trillian Application

This paper outlines the underlying security risks of Instant Messaging (IM) focusing on an analysis of Cerulean Studios' Trillian application. There are several corporate offerings being released by the major IM providers, but the focus has been on providing a secure application for usage across the corporate Intranet with little to no integration with the public Internet. Cerulean Studios has focused its efforts on developing a secure IM application for usage across the Internet. Trillian is an IM application capable of simultaneously connecting to multiple IM services and is a secure option for corporations to use, allowing employees to collaborate securely via the Internet. Cerulean Studios has developed methods to encrypt IM for AOL and ICQ. This paper will examine the Trillian application in detail, analyze the methods of encryption designed into the application, provide a comparison of the underlying packets transmitted, and provide findings based on the overall research and analysis. Trillian has been widely accepted as a secure tool. This paper supports Cerulean Studios' claim that Trillian provides a secure option for both personal and corporate IM usage. The author of this paper is in no way affiliated with or compensated by Cerulean Studios.