Call intercept back door turns Skype into... Spy-ke?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 27 July 2008 13:40

Opinion and Analysis

Skype says it has done its own “comprehensive external security review, focusing on encryption”.

Skype staffer “Jaanus” explains this in an article on Skype’s own site, but one issue that I’d personally raise about this security review is that was done in 2005, clearly before Jaanus’ article was written, which was posted on October 21, 2005.

A lot has happened since then, computing power has improved, and a three-year old security review may no longer be relevant.

However, you can decide for yourself: the “full report” is available here in PDF form, with links to executive summaries and more at the “Jaanus” link listed two sentence above but available here anyway.

Jaanus does say at the end of his article that: “As Skype and its software and services evolve, so does the need for security and similar reviews. This won't remain the last one, but we're happy to get our security review process off the ground with this report.”

Perhaps it’s time for Skype to commission another report, a check at the source of the original report shows no updates, with the original report looking at Skype version 1.3 - when we are already up to Skype 4.0 beta!

And finally, the question remains: even if third parties cannot independently intercept Skype calls, can Skype itself intercept these calls, and give access to governments and others to do so?