Users on the internet are doing more and more of their daily work over peer-to-peer applications. Existing protocols such as SMTP and IRC are being replaced by peer-to-peer file transfer, voice chat, and text messaging systems. Unfortunately, the popular protocols are not secure, and the secure protocols are not popular.

In this talk, we will talk about the security properties of the existing peer-to-peer systems, as well as describing an open-source system in development, CUTLASS. CUTLASS aims to fill the niche for tools powerful and usable enough to be broadly popular, while still providing strong encryption and authentication, all in a BSD-licensed package. It supports encrypted voice, chat, and file transfer.

We will be demoing CUTLASS, comparing it to other systems in existence, and talking about future plans for the software.