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Skype Calls Are Encryted: How To Stop Those Pesky Eavesdropping Problems
With all the current talk about governmental eavesdropping, Skype might be the solution. Big Brother fears might be the headache convincing consumer's to try the free service, making the controversial practice of eavesdropping a thing of the past and a problem of "old media".
According to an Associated Press article from technology writer Peter Svensson, Skype (eBay's Internet calling service purchased for megadollars last summer, which is enabled for both Windows and Mac) provides encrypted free voice calls and instant messaging between users. "Encrypted" means lots of complicated mathematical operations make it nearly impossible to snoop, though Skype says that's debatable. If that's true, ANYONE (including criminals, terrorists and psychos) are just as anonymous using Skype as the rest of us law-abiding citizens who want to call their family or friends.
I've used Skype and it really is simple yet amazing. Skype calls move through the Web encrypted with "keys," which are very long numbers -- 256 bits long to be exact, which is double the length of those used by credit card companies. In theory, that means Skype's 256-bit keys would take trillions of times longer to crack than credit card companies' 128-bit keys, which are already considered practically impossible to break. But Skype may not be quite so secure as it seems, according to security experts, because the company has yet to open its technology to review. Even so, a weak encryption system is still extremely difficult to break, and, "would {likely} stymie the kind of broad eavesdropping that the National Security Agency is reputed to be performing," said the Associated Press.
If you like new tech advances, this is a good new article about Net-based telephony.
posted by Unknown @ Friday, February 17, 2006,
