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First - go back to the ancient times when Skype was conceived. Then people used these weird wired devices to talk called telephones. Skype was created to just

First - go back to the ancient times when Skype was conceived. Then people used these weird wired devices to talk called telephones. Skype was created to just piss off national telecoms and wired carriers - because sending the data for a minute of voice over the network was costing way less than what they were charging. The brilliant architecture of skype for the times (and even now) was not created for the security of the users but for Skype to be impossible to be blocked and detected by telecoms with all kinds of possible DPI capabilities. The fact that this gave the users somewhat secure way to communicate was just a nice side effect. Nowadays the times have changed - the telecoms are overcharging on mobile data like mad and throwing voice minutes like they are going out of fashion, up to a point that actually having the telephone used as a modem over voice call could be profitable. So nobody is bothered to block voice apps. So there is less need for security.

MichaelGG 13y ago
Skype's security was more for self-interest in preventing third party clients to connect. It hasn't had any proper audits, except for a rather dubious review Skype published. The rest of interop is achieved through reverse engineering or other hacking up the Skype client. To think Skype had user's best interests in mind is ludicrous. By not just encrypting, but deliberately obfuscating the protocol and client, they ensured no one could make a better client or hardware without paying them. VoIP was around before Skype. Microsoft's NetMeeting (1996) included multiparty video and audio conversations. Skype wasn't inventive in that way. P2P was a cute way to bootstrap (less relay servers needed for NAT traversal). Pissing off carriers is a funny line. All your SkypeOut calls go out to "carriers", so they get paid. Sure, AT&T would prefer to charge you 50 cents directly, instead of getting a few cents on wholesale, but Skype's got a huge amount of markup in their prices, too.

MichaelGG 13y ago

Skype's security was more for self-interest in preventing third party clients to connect. It hasn't had any proper audits, except for a rather dubious review Skype published. The rest of interop is achieved through reverse engineering or other hacking up the Skype client. To think Skype had user's best interests in mind is ludicrous. By not just encrypting, but deliberately obfuscating the protocol and client, they ensured no one could make a better client or hardware without paying them. VoIP was around before Skype. Microsoft's NetMeeting (1996) included multiparty video and audio conversations. Skype wasn't inventive in that way. P2P was a cute way to bootstrap (less relay servers needed for NAT traversal). Pissing off carriers is a funny line. All your SkypeOut calls go out to "carriers", so they get paid. Sure, AT&T would prefer to charge you 50 cents directly, instead of getting a few cents on wholesale, but Skype's got a huge amount of markup in their prices, too.