Skype security flub leads to discovery of Chinese monitoring. If you’re an authoritarian government that closely monitors your citizens’ online communications, here’s a tip from Ars Technica: tell your minions not to store the logs on publicly-accessible servers. This is exactly what China has done with information pulled from the TOM-Skype network, leading a handful of researchers to discover that China is logging text messages and analyze the country’s behavior with regards to the online monitoring and censorship of citizens. In a joint report between ONI Asia and the Information Welfare Monitor, author Nart Villeneuve details evidence that China not only monitors and logs text chat, but also targets specific users for further monitoring. [Ars Technica]
I’ve mentioned before that Skype’s “encryption” is a fraud and should never be trusted. Anyone who wants secure text messaging should look for an app that supports the OTR Messaging protocol, such as Adium. Keep in mind as well that even if you’re not worried about the Chinese government spying on you, the American government spies on everybody.
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