Speculation over possible wiretap back door in Skype.
Speculation over back door in Skype via Heise Online (DE)
According to reports, there may be a back door built into Skype, which allows connections to be bugged. The company has declined to expressly deny the allegations. At a meeting with representatives of ISPs and the Austrian regulator on lawful interception of IP based services held on 25th June, high-ranking officials at the Austrian interior ministry revealed that it is not a problem for them to listen in on Skype conversations.
This has been confirmed to heise online by a number of the parties present at the meeting. Skype declined to give a detailed response to specific enquiries from heise online as to whether Skype contains a back door and whether specific clients allowing access to a system or a specific key for decrypting data streams exist. read more »
[Privacy Digest: Privacy News (Civil Rights, Encryption, Free Speech, Cryptography)]
Since the source code for Skype is not open to public review, its “encryption” is no more than a marketing bullet point for the gullible. Whether there’s a deliberate back door, or just an error in the encryption code that can be exploited, there’s no way to know. Anyone who needs secure communication should look elsewhere, such as Zfone.
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