An idea I've been playing with, looking for input (IRC related)

[at0m]

I was chatting about this with qualia last night and they seemed to think it was a pretty good idea so I figured I'd post it and see what everyone else thinks.

Jotting ideas down as I go so please excuse the dot points

• Secure IRC server
  
  • SSL
    
  • Tor/.onion access
    
  • Hosted in a country with decent privacy laws (more than likely somewhere in Europe)
    
  • No logs
    

  [*]Fully transparent in my actions/methods

  [*]NOT affiliated with SAB or any other organisation/site

  [*]Relatively free use. ie, anyone can make channels/rooms however botnets and other C&C centres won't, obviously, be permitted.

  [*]Instructions on how to connect on Windows, Linux, Mac and phones.

  [*]<your suggestions here>

   

 

I realise we've had an IRC server and such before and they eventually died out a bit. I'm hoping this won't got he same way, haven't worked out how though. As for why we don't just continue using those... simply put, I feel it's better if you know the admin and how the server is run; especially when you're playing in the grey area.

Suggestions? Criticisms?

[goneski]

I'm all for it. I tend to have the shout box open all the time (until it times out) anyway.

I'd much prefer to be able to idle in an IRC channel..

I also notice the shout box gets overrun by mycology talk (i'm guilty of this), and some may want to talk about cacti or whatever instead.

It would be nice to have a general channel, then a #mycology, a #cacti or whatever else suits.

I'm assuming with all the privacy/security (SSL, no logs, etc) this would be an invite only server?

[space cadet swami]

I also notice the shout box gets overrun by mycology talk (i'm guilty of this)

 

Nah, really...

[at0m]

I'm assuming with all the privacy/security (SSL, no logs, etc) this would be an invite only server?

 

More than likely, yes. I can do everything I can technically to ensure the data is safe but I can't control what people do with it.

I should also point out when I say "No logs" I mean on the server side. There's, unfortunately, no way to stop the users logging beyond asking them not to and hoping they're in it for the right reasons.

[waterboy 2.0]

Nice idea at0m, if you need a some coin to kick it off let me know.

[indigo264nm]

The issue is not having a genius to set up the most secure means of communicating possible and also admin-ing the IRC channel like we had for the old one. I was talking about this earlier today funnily enough and apparently security wise for instant messaging the #lab was as good as it gets.

I'm all for the idea, don't get me wrong, but I need to be able to trust it to be completely secure.

[at0m]

It was alright. I wouldn't say "as good as it gets" though.

• SSL wasn't forced meaning the traffic could have been sniffed locally.
  
  • No tor (tor2tor/onion2onion) access (as far as I'm aware)
    

  [*]IPs aren't fully obfuscated (nit picking a bit with this one). The ISP is still visible which, while it's not anything solid, is more 'data' to add to a profile someone may be building of a person.

  [*]Unsure on their [austnet] logging policies

   

 

Just an idea I'm throwing around still but if I were to do it, my actions would be very transparent (probably not to /everyone/ but a few who can verify my statements for others.)

[indigo264nm]

It was alright. I wouldn't say "as good as it gets" though.

Well the the old admin sittin in my lounge room geekin away on his laptop begged to differ when I was talking to him about secure communication yesterday - he put a lot of work into finding secure servers to host the channel. If people didn't enable SSL then they shouldn't have been there hehe.

I will say TOR is always a good place to start for anonymity but it is only as trustworthy as the exit node.

[at0m]

Didn't mean to get anyone's back up or anything.

Just ideas anyway

As for tor. Tor to tor / tor to onion doesn't go through an exit node. It splits and jumps through non-exit relays.

But yes, I wouldn't trust an exit node as far as I can throw it

[tedzr]

An irc server is a low key thing, while I'm not sure on the legals (NFI), if u get someone to host it with all those settings then i can't see how it would b a problem for the host. From what I've heard the real problems occur when these groups are infiltrated and individuals are targeted by law enforcement. If u guys are worried, the best defence is to form a tight posse with an invisible password protected channel on a server that is as private as functionally possible. Ssl and no server side logging is a must i think.