Report: Skype allegedly ‘wiretapping’ video calls for U.S Government
(Daily Tech) – According to several hacker/tech websites popular video-calling service Skype isn’t just allowing users to freely call whomever they like as long they’ve got the Skype service running — they’re allegedly ‘wiretapping’ video calls to the U.S government too.
“Reportedly, Microsoft is re-engineering these supernodes to make it easier for law enforcement to monitor calls by allowing the supernodes to not only make the introduction but to actually route the voice data of the calls as well,” Tim Verry, from the website ExtremeTech, wrote last week. (Supernodes are third-party computers that act as a sort of directory service for routing calls.)
“In this way, the actual voice data would pass through the monitored servers and the call is no longer secure. It is essentially a man-in-the-middle attack, and it is made all the easier because Microsoft — who owns Skype and knows the keys used for the service’s encryption — is helping.”
Related articles
- Can Skype ‘wiretap’ video calls? (cnn.com)
- Skype Could Intercept Conversations, Doesn’t Confirm It (news.softpedia.com)
- Skype has made a technical change to the way calls are placed (fox6now.com)
- Can Skype eavesdrop on its users? (foxnews.com)
- Is Skype snooping on your conversations? (zdnet.com)
- Microsoft won’t say if Skype has a wiretap backdoor (slashgear.com)
