5 ms·

Talibans abusing VoIP Skype client

4 points by omfut 18y ago

noonespecial 18y ago
1) Computers can encrypt data. Good encryption is easy to use and prohibitively hard to break. 2) Voice is really just data. These two concepts are still very vague in the minds of politicians and the like but they are coming closer to finally colliding. Dim little bulbs are soon going to come on over certain heads and we may have us a short trip to Vernor Vinge's SHE. I wonder how the people who went so far in recent days to tap phones (both legally and otherwise) will react when they finally realize that the age of the "phone tap" is coming to an end,
mindslight 18y ago
That horseman is a little lonely there all by itself. Can't you add something about organized crime? The FCC hasn't requested Skype to add a backdoor because that would only drive people away from Skype to secure solutions.
- Herring 18y ago
  skype already has a backdoor, google it. The problem is network effects again.
  - mindslight 18y ago
    Which is why my comment was highly dismissive of this article as anything but parroting of anti-privacy propaganda. I'd bet that these scary Taliban transmissions are being intercepted just fine. Requiring an overt backdoor for law enforcement would just encourage people to move away from Skype, diminishing the value of whatever covert backdoors it has.
    - omfut 18y ago
      This is not something new. Law enforcement official have the ability to wiretap voice calls over landline and mobile. The issue is with the Voice calls that take place over the internet. I agree privacy is an issue here. However, we are missing the bigger cause here. These backdoors, if used genuinely can save lot of lives and stop crime and terrorism.
      - Herring 18y ago
        Or they can be abused, eg by china or by Bush's telecoms. I'd like to think the right to privacy isn't just for people we like, same as free speech. But this is irrelevant, voice is data & data can be encrypted, as was said earlier. Law enforcement will just have to adapt.
      - mindslight 18y ago
        > These backdoors, if used genuinely can save lot of lives and stop crime and terrorism. Don't forget kiddie porn and money laundering! They're feeling a little left out here. "Bigger cause" ? Physics does not work that way. The only leverage over Skype is that it's closed source. Crypto genie is not going back in the bottle.
    - Herring 18y ago
      I see, I misread.
  - omfut 18y ago
    Iam not sure if skype has a backdoor solution. rumors are that some folks have reverse engineered the client. So far, i have not heard anyone claiming to have succesfully reverse engineered the client
thamer 18y ago
Why abusing? They are just using the standard features. Does “they are abusing the client” means “I disagree with their use”?
- omfut 18y ago
  I guess they are using the standard features knowing the loopholes in the client. They know for sure that these calls cannot be wiretapped. This, I guess is one of the reasons why they are using skype instead of other gazillion clients
wheels 18y ago
The people that planned September 11th weren't idiots. If they could train several people how to fly a 747, they can figure out encrypting their communication. Once again, all this will really do is erode the privacy of everyone else, all while waving the carte blanche that is "saving us from the terrorists". I wish Thomas Jefferson could come back from the dead to tear these guys a new one.

4 points by omfut 18y ago

1) Computers can encrypt data. Good encryption is easy to use and prohibitively hard to break. 2) Voice is really just data. These two concepts are still very vague in the minds of politicians and the like but they are coming closer to finally colliding. Dim little bulbs are soon going to come on over certain heads and we may have us a short trip to Vernor Vinge's SHE. I wonder how the people who went so far in recent days to tap phones (both legally and otherwise) will react when they finally realize that the age of the "phone tap" is coming to an end,

mindslight 18y ago

That horseman is a little lonely there all by itself. Can't you add something about organized crime? The FCC hasn't requested Skype to add a backdoor because that would only drive people away from Skype to secure solutions.

Herring 18y ago
skype already has a backdoor, google it. The problem is network effects again.
- mindslight 18y ago
  Which is why my comment was highly dismissive of this article as anything but parroting of anti-privacy propaganda. I'd bet that these scary Taliban transmissions are being intercepted just fine. Requiring an overt backdoor for law enforcement would just encourage people to move away from Skype, diminishing the value of whatever covert backdoors it has.
  - omfut 18y ago
    This is not something new. Law enforcement official have the ability to wiretap voice calls over landline and mobile. The issue is with the Voice calls that take place over the internet. I agree privacy is an issue here. However, we are missing the bigger cause here. These backdoors, if used genuinely can save lot of lives and stop crime and terrorism.
    - Herring 18y ago
      Or they can be abused, eg by china or by Bush's telecoms. I'd like to think the right to privacy isn't just for people we like, same as free speech. But this is irrelevant, voice is data & data can be encrypted, as was said earlier. Law enforcement will just have to adapt.
    - mindslight 18y ago
      > These backdoors, if used genuinely can save lot of lives and stop crime and terrorism. Don't forget kiddie porn and money laundering! They're feeling a little left out here. "Bigger cause" ? Physics does not work that way. The only leverage over Skype is that it's closed source. Crypto genie is not going back in the bottle.
  - Herring 18y ago
    I see, I misread.
- omfut 18y ago
  Iam not sure if skype has a backdoor solution. rumors are that some folks have reverse engineered the client. So far, i have not heard anyone claiming to have succesfully reverse engineered the client

thamer 18y ago

Why abusing? They are just using the standard features. Does “they are abusing the client” means “I disagree with their use”?

omfut 18y ago
I guess they are using the standard features knowing the loopholes in the client. They know for sure that these calls cannot be wiretapped. This, I guess is one of the reasons why they are using skype instead of other gazillion clients

wheels 18y ago

The people that planned September 11th weren't idiots. If they could train several people how to fly a 747, they can figure out encrypting their communication. Once again, all this will really do is erode the privacy of everyone else, all while waving the carte blanche that is "saving us from the terrorists". I wish Thomas Jefferson could come back from the dead to tear these guys a new one.