Cryptocat: Adopting Accessibility and Ease of Use as Security Properties

Abstract

Cryptocat is a Free and Open Source Software (FL/OSS) browser extension that makes use of web technologies in order to provide easy to use, accessible, encrypted instant messaging to the general public. We aim to investigate how to best leverage the accessibility and portability offered by web technologies in order to allow encrypted instant messaging an opportunity to better permeate on a social level. We have found that encrypted communications, while in many cases technically well-implemented, suffer from a lack of usage due to their being unappealing and inaccessible to the "average end-user". Our position is that accessibility and ease of use must be treated as security properties. Even if a cryptographic system is technically highly qualified, securing user privacy is not achieved without addressing the problem of accessibility. Our goal is to investigate the feasibility of implementing cryptographic systems in highly accessible mediums, and to address the technical and social challenges of making encrypted instant messaging accessible and portable.