Peer-to-peer group communication has long been a necessity for usability in team coordination. However, the security of such systems has not been well understood or investigated in comparison to one-to-one secure messaging options (such as Signal or even TLS). Based on an ongoing IETF standardization initiative, this presentation will introduce participants to the basic concepts of group messaging security, end-goals, and threat models – including “self-healing” security – and will prepare them to ask critical questions regarding group communication security and implementations.
Britta Hale is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Naval Postgraduate School working in cryptography and cybersecurity. Her specialization areas include analysis and design of cryptographic key exchange and authentication protocols. Hale is currently active in the design and IETF standardization of the MLS group messaging protocol, user-mediated protocol analysis, and hybrid post-quantum cryptography.
Recent papers include the first public research on detection of man-in-the-middle attackers in messaging protocols. Hale holds a PhD from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and a Master’s in Mathematics of Cryptography and Communications from Royal Holloway, Univ. of London.