Survey of Instant Messaging Applications Encryption Methods

Instant messaging applications has already taken the place of traditional Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) due to their popularity and usage easement they provide. Users of instant messaging applications are able to send both text and audio messages, different types of attachments such as photos, videos, contact information to their contacts in real time. Because of instant messaging applications use internet instead of Short Message Service Technical Realization (GSM), they are free to use and they only require internet connection which is the most common way of communication today. The critical point here is providing privacy of these messages in order to prevent any vulnerable points for hackers and cyber criminals. According to the latest research by PricewaterhouseCoopers, percentage of global cyber attacks is increased to 48% with 42.8 million detected incidents. Another report that is published by security company Postini indicates that 90% of instant messaging targeted threats are highly destructive worms. In this study, instant messaging applications encryption methods are comparatively presented. Instant messaging applications are investigated considering three different target platforms: (1) Desktop clients, (2) web clients, and (3) mobile phone clients. Instant messaging applications are compared through the critical criteria that most research studies emphasize: (1) Text conversation over internet, (2) text conversation after encryption, and (3) text conversation after enabling Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Finally, authors highlight key requirements of a secure instant messaging application should provide.