“After Microsoft acquired Skype in May 2011, it updated the software with technology allowing legitimate wiretapping,”- Maksim Emm, CEO, Peak Systems
Most of us have heard of the KGB. That branch of the Russian military / government known to have lasted until for about 40 years, until about 1991 when things changed for the Soviet block. The FSB may be a little less well known by many though, because they appeared after the dispersion of the KGB, but it seems though that the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB for short) has their hands in the same kind of espionage business as the KGB, and is even tapping Skype calls.
Its been reported that the FSB is not only able to tap Skype calls, but even locate a user using the service. Though the information is just now leaking out, it’s said by the Russian media, RT, that the FSB has had the ability to do this now for years.
Maksim Emm, CEO of Peak Systems says that,”After Microsoft acquired Skype in May 2011, it updated the software with technology allowing legitimate wiretapping”. Microsoft did so by enabling Skype user accounts to be able to be switched into a mode in which a single security key would allow whoever had possession of it to not only listen to calls, but to even ascertain an individuals location.
The FSB asked Microsoft to provide the Skype source code since the ability to do such was now a matter of Russian national security. Microsoft did not.
The Russians, as well as the French, have both now been making actively making strides to make Microsoft register itself as a tel-co, which would then change the entire nature of the Microsoft’s Skype privacy argument (whatever privacy there may truly be) and allow tel-co laws already in place to then force Microsoft to meet Russian and French demands when requesting Skype information.
The Russian aren’t the only ones being wiretapped on Skype though. According to the New York Times, the Chinese are using Skype to listen in on conversations as well and a computer science grad student in America found out how. Jeffrey Knockel says that there’s a certain version of Skype that’s supposedly only used in China. It’s referred to as TOM-Skype. The special software embedded in it actually listens for certain words or phrases and when it hears them it notifies unnamed agents. Supposedly, this eavesdropping ability is limited to the TOM-Skype version in China, but as we’ve already stated, the Russians already have the ability to listen in as well to more than just what the Chinese call TOM-Skype. Jeffrey couldn’t get any repsponse from Microsoft on the matter, except they did say though that, “As majority partner in the joint venture, TOM has established procedures to meet its obligations under local laws.”
The French have been vehement in monitoring the way in which the digital world is shaping and taking action to assist its direction. Last Tuesday, the French began looking at the Microsoft Skype issue further since Microsoft has thus far refused to register themselves as a tel-co service and align themselves with French law. Ironically, although the Russians have been using what many would call illegal methods to provide what they would call national security. Both the French and the Russians want legal methods to listen in on Skype activity.