Hacker News Reader

Comment by jdavid | Hacker News Reader

http://www.cnet.com/news/nsa-docs-boast-now-we-can-wiretap-s...

-- "In 2008, when the company was owned by eBay instead of Microsoft , a Skype spokeswoman told CNET : "We have not received any subpoenas or court orders asking us to perform a live interception or wiretap of Skype-to-Skype communications. In any event, because of Skype's peer-to-peer architecture and encryption techniques, Skype would not be able to comply with such a request."

-- "After buying Skype, Microsoft dramatically overhauled its architecture, replacing peer-to-peer "super nodes" with thousands of servers run by Microsoft -- a more centralized approach that may have made it easier for government eavesdroppers. Around the same time, Microsoft would no longer stand by Skype's earlier claim to be wiretap-unfriendly."

View on HN

I have a Skype subscription and I consistently receive complaints on the other end of the line. Skype worked well from 2007-2010 on Nokia N8x0 devices and Windows.

It's been god-awful since then. I think I've had one acceptable call. As for my point, eBay and Microsoft truly slaughtered Skype.

and now skype video calls actually work instead of playing "super node roulette" with quality and connectivity. Not to mention, being deemed a super node randomly at work and watching all your upload bandwidth being eaten by idle skype clients.

I have no idea if the new server-based system is wiretap friendly, but the old system was definitely 100% business unfriendly. Companies pay for GotoMeeting, Webex, Lync, voip video calls, etc for a reason. Skype had to be modernized to compete with other services. I don't see some grand conspiracy here. Why would MS spend all this money to just help the government? Its just asinine.

Those who need encrypted and secure communications were foolish to trust Skype in the first place. If you aren't rolling your own FOSS-based applications on your own hardware, you can expect zero privacy here. I imagine the "old" Skype was just as easily gamed. Sorry if I don't think some spokesperson's PR statement is proof that it was truly secure. Especially considering Skype was originally a Russian company. There's precedence for this, for example Blackberry's "unbreakable" peer-to-peer encryption scheme is regularly downgraded, invisible to the end user, to more breakable bitrates per national law. I believe India and Saudi Arabia do this.

> Skype was originally a Russian company

This is incorrect. It was originally Estonian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype#History

> Why would MS spend all this money to just help the government? Its just asinine.

I was reminded of an old 2009 article [0] that speculated that the NSA was willing to pay big bucks to any company that could make Skype easier for them to intercept.

Maybe Microsoft took them up on that offer, and made a profit with their restructuring of Skype's architecture.

[0]: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions_...

While that's not unfathomable, it's very much Microsoft's modus operandi to centralise their services... it's a very corporate thing to do.

What is quite amusing is that they've basically taken Skype and gutted it down to something that is similar to the old MSN messenger.

> I imagine the "old" Skype was just as easily gamed.

Most European police forces would disagree. For years, they simply would not shut up about how Skype was such a pain in the neck to deal with. There were constant streams of interviews and talks about the need for, basically, either a Skype ban or some other form of pressure over the company. Skype alone was painted as the clear cause of pedophilia, drug and human trafficking, illegal arm trading, the works. This from people with little scruples in terms of enforcement -- French and Italian police are fond of seizing whole server farms when they need to check a few emails from "subversives", so they would have happily nuked Skype from orbit if given half the chance.

As soon as Microsoft "rearchitected" the protocol, poof! All lamentations stopped.

So many wrong statements either bad assumptions or intentional.

Skype used to be peer-to-peer and had a very secure protocol. With all its advantages and just a few disadvantages.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com