[LINK] RFI: Skype Conversation Accessibility

[Roger Clarke]

Does anyone have reliable knowledge or sources re the ability of a 
third party to access real-time Skype (or other VoIP) conversations?


Internet telephone encryption stumps police
<http://www.theage.com.au/news/voip/internet-telephone-encryption-stumps-police/2007/11/23/1195753285526.html>http://www.theage.com.au/news/voip/internet-telephone-encryption-stumps-police/2007/11/23/1195753285526.html

November 23, 2007 - 3:17PM

German police are unable to decipher the encryption used in the 
internet telephone software Skype to monitor calls by suspected 
criminals and terrorists, Germany's top police officer said on 
Thursday.

Skype allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet from 
their computer to other Skype users free of charge.

Law enforcement agencies and intelligence services have used wiretaps 
since the telephone was invented, but implementing them is much more 
complex in the modern telecommunications market where the providers 
are often foreign companies.

"The encryption with Skype telephone software ... creates grave 
difficulties for us," Joerg Ziercke, president of Germany's Federal 
Police Office (BKA) told reporters at an annual gathering of security 
and law enforcement officials.

"We can't decipher it. That's why we're talking about source 
telecommunication surveillance -- that is, getting to the source 
before encryption or after it's been decrypted."

Experts say Skype and other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 
calling software are difficult to intercept because they work by 
breaking up voice data into small packets and switching them along 
thousands of router paths instead of a constant circuit between two 
parties, as with a traditional call.

Ziercke said they were not asking Skype to divulge its encryption 
keys or leave "back doors open" for German and other country's law 
enforcement authorities.

"There are no discussions with Skype. I don't think that would help," 
he said, adding that he did not want to harm the competitiveness of 
any company. "I don't think that any provider would go for that."

Ziercke said there was a vital need for German law enforcement 
agencies to have the ability to conduct on-line searches of computer 
hard drives of suspected terrorists using "Trojan horse" spyware.

These searches are especially important in cases where the suspects 
are aware that their Internet traffic and phone calls may be 
monitored and choose to store sensitive information directly on their 
hard drives without emailing it.

Spyware computer searches are illegal in Germany, where people are 
sensitive about police surveillance due to the history of the Nazis' 
Gestapo secret police and the former East German Stasi.

Ziercke said worries were overblown and that on-line searches would 
need to be conducted only on rare occasions.

"We currently have 230 proceedings related to suspected Islamists," 
Ziercke said. "I can imagine that in two or three of those we would 
like to do this."

Reuters

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/
			            
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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW