I'm using a small ultra-portable - only 1.5 ghz. Do you think it could handle APR poisining a whole subnet that might have many dozens of connections running? Isn't that a fairly resource intensive task? Plus it's wireless, not wired.

It is definitely an interesting competition. Its all rationalized by the notion that if you're not discrete, you'll be penalized in terms of your standing in the competition (credibility, confidence amongst allies, etc). It's a very progressive approach for an academic competition to take - but I presume the objective is to closely simulate real world politics, where of course, this stuff happens, but it is not overt, or admitted to. To be very explicit though, it is completely condoned in the competition - yet considered negative if you're caught - I hope I'm explaining it well? Analogous to cheating, in the card game "Cheat".

I should have thought of Hamachi - don't know why I overlooked that. It has a built in chat client, does it not?

In terms of Cain, would I even need to do a man-in-the-middle? (like APR?) If I've joined the unencrypted network, can I not simply sniff the traffic without connecting myself in between other systems and the router/wireless AP? I might not be understanding this correctly.

Very interesting perspective with regards to avoiding the provided network altogether. I have a laptop capable of using a SIM card and the cell network - though I've never elected to purchase a data plan. I'll look into this.

One of the challengs - while I can ensure my own security (I could use a VPN myself, or even an encrypted VNC session into a machine safe at home), this would be negated by the fact that the people in this environment that I need to communicate with may not have taken adequate steps themselves. Dealing with the digital side of this type of competition is relatively new - evolving - it's a security issue, but not all of the delagates will be adequately prepared. This is not to downplay the significance of the threat - it's there, and we will encounter it - it's just not widely enough protected against by most of the delegates, because it's such a new challenge.

So even if my route to whatever I use as an ISP is secure, if other delgates in the room are receiving my communication through their own insecure connection, my efforts are negated. Hence me looking for a client that itself would supply a layer of encryption (software that I could provide perhaps on a USB key to delegates I need to communicate with)

Physical security is something that really requires my own attentiveness more than anything else. Remembering to dismount a secure volume if I need to leave my laptop - or perhaps never leaving my laptop.

In terms of explicit permission. I'll need to look specifically into the legality side of things. In terms of the event, if a tactic is legal (in terms of the actual law of the city/state or province/country we're in) it's fair game in the competition. There are a few exceptions and explicit rules, but they don't relate to this aspect of the competition. The next major event is being held in the United States. So presumably I need to look into whether capturing over-the-air data is legal/not. I was under the assumption that because the network is not encrypted, it IS legal to sniff the traffic. Admittedly, I'm assuming this because it was a justification used by other participants in the past - so I'll need to do my own investigation. Perhaps someone (preferably from the US) has insight into this?

Disclaimer - If anyone is uncomfortable answering this question, or feels it is inappropriate to ask here, please tell me.

I'm attending a graduate level model politics event that is VERY cut-throat. Model legislation is frequently stolen (digitally or the old fashioned way), and this is all an accepted aspect of the simulation. Anything goes. It means that keeping digital legislation protected locally is very important - and I'm fairly set in that regard (using TruCrypt, and some other tools)

Traditionally, communication within the simulation was entirely written, which added an old-school level of espionage to the event. Now we're starting to see the use of laptops in-session, and a lot of the communication is moving towards digital/wireless means.

Specifically I have two related questions:

1) On an unsecured (or rather, un-encrypted, but browser-login) wifi network, my traffic is sent clear-text, and can be sniffed by anyone in range. Does anyone know of an IM client or other direct peer-to-peer chat client that adds its own layer of encryption? Something like connecting to a VPN is not preferable, because anyone that I'd like to communicate with in the room would need to connect through it as well, or we've defeated the purpose.

2) Flip-side of my concern. Is there a specific piece of software that I can use to sniff and interpret traffic on the fly, and reassemble the multitude of different traffic it might see? I would probably encounter typical IM traffic (AOL, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo) as well as browser based communication (Facebook, Hotmail) and POP3/IMAP. Sniffing is no problem, but I've never run into a good tool that can make sense of all the different data quickly, and display it in a mannor that is digestable in such a fast-paced environment.

Again, if you feel that question 2 is inappropriate from a newcomer on this forum, I would understand completely.

Thanks

Is anyone familiar with packet sniffing software that can reassemble browser content in realitime?