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Skype will be open sourced...

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Anonymous Remailer (austria)...

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 8:06 am

Guest

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/02/open_source_skype/

I hope someone in this NG will take a look at the Skype encryption
because I have my doubts about it. The U.S. and China had been given
access to the source code a couple of years back and since then they
became awfully quiet, which I interpret as them being able to decrypt
conversations somehow.

Or does anyone have another explanation?

Tom St Denis...

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:53 am

Guest

On Nov 3, 1:06 pm, "Anonymous Remailer (austria)"
<mixmas... at (no spam) remailer.privacy.at> wrote:
[quote]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/02/open_source_skype/

I hope someone in this NG will take a look at the Skype encryption
because I have my doubts about it. The U.S. and China had been given
access to the source code a couple of years back and since then they
became awfully quiet, which I interpret as them being able to decrypt
conversations somehow.

Or does anyone have another explanation?
[/quote]
Nothing you say is of any value to any government. I'd be more
worried about corporate interests peeking into your privacy if
anything else.

Tom

Anon...

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:34 am

Guest

On Nov 3, 2:53 pm, Tom St Denis <t... at (no spam) iahu.ca> wrote:
[quote]On Nov 3, 1:06 pm, "Anonymous Remailer (austria)"

mixmas... at (no spam) remailer.privacy.at> wrote:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/02/open_source_skype/

I hope someone in this NG will take a look at the Skype encryption
because I have my doubts about it. The U.S. and China had been given
access to the source code a couple of years back and since then they
became awfully quiet, which I interpret as them being able to decrypt
conversations somehow.

Or does anyone have another explanation?

Nothing you say is of any value to any government. I'd be more
worried about corporate interests peeking into your privacy if
anything else.

Tom
[/quote]
Not entirely true Tom,
The US government (and Canada's as well) monitor several land lines
and cell phones for "keywords" and
only record when these keywords are heard in a certain context. I
don't know how much of this is publicized
or if it is even legal and against our rights, but then again the
government allows themselves to strip our rights
in the name of "national security". Briefly, they could be doing the
same thing with Skype.

Max
(http://f33r.com)

Tom St Denis...

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:14 am

Guest

On Nov 3, 4:01 pm, rossum <rossu... at (no spam) coldmail.com> wrote:
[quote]On Tue, 3 Nov 2009 12:34:09 -0800 (PST), Anon <haxor.m... at (no spam) gmail.com
wrote:

On Nov 3, 2:53 pm, Tom St Denis <t... at (no spam) iahu.ca> wrote:
On Nov 3, 1:06 pm, "Anonymous Remailer (austria)"

mixmas... at (no spam) remailer.privacy.at> wrote:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/02/open_source_skype/

I hope someone in this NG will take a look at the Skype encryption
because I have my doubts about it. The U.S. and China had been given
access to the source code a couple of years back and since then they
became awfully quiet, which I interpret as them being able to decrypt
conversations somehow.

Or does anyone have another explanation?

Nothing you say is of any value to any government. I'd be more
worried about corporate interests peeking into your privacy if
anything else.

Tom

Not entirely true Tom,
The US government (and Canada's as well) monitor several land lines
and cell phones for "keywords" and
only record when these keywords are heard in a certain context. I
don't know how much of this is publicized
or if it is even legal and against our rights, but then again the
government allows themselves to strip our rights
in the name of "national security". Briefly, they could be doing the
same thing with Skype.

Max
(http://f33r.com)

We know that governments tap phone lines and mobiles. It is easiest
to assume that they are tapping Skype as well; it would be strange if
they did not.

rossum
[/quote]
Well my point though is that for 99.999% of people the government
can't possibly, even with the most advanced techniques, care any less
what you saw at the shopping mall, or how you'll spend hours talking
to Jenny on the phone about it. And for the few people out there with
actual real secrets they're hopefully smart enough to not mention them
over the phone.

I'm not saying that tapping lines indiscriminately is right, I'm
saying I just don't care about it.

Tom

rossum...

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:01 pm

Guest

On Tue, 3 Nov 2009 12:34:09 -0800 (PST), Anon <haxor.much at (no spam) gmail.com>
wrote:

[quote]On Nov 3, 2:53Â pm, Tom St Denis <t... at (no spam) iahu.ca> wrote:
On Nov 3, 1:06Â pm, "Anonymous Remailer (austria)"

mixmas... at (no spam) remailer.privacy.at> wrote:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/02/open_source_skype/

I hope someone in this NG will take a look at the Skype encryption
because I have my doubts about it. The U.S. and China had been given
access to the source code a couple of years back and since then they
became awfully quiet, which I interpret as them being able to decrypt
conversations somehow.

Or does anyone have another explanation?

Nothing you say is of any value to any government. Â I'd be more
worried about corporate interests peeking into your privacy if
anything else.

Tom

Not entirely true Tom,
The US government (and Canada's as well) monitor several land lines
and cell phones for "keywords" and
only record when these keywords are heard in a certain context. I
don't know how much of this is publicized
or if it is even legal and against our rights, but then again the
government allows themselves to strip our rights
in the name of "national security". Briefly, they could be doing the
same thing with Skype.

Max
(http://f33r.com)
We know that governments tap phone lines and mobiles. It is easiest[/quote]
to assume that they are tapping Skype as well; it would be strange if
they did not.

rossum

Tom St Denis...

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 12:39 am

Guest

On Nov 4, 4:52 am, Noob <r... at (no spam) 127.0.0.1> wrote:
[quote]Tom St Denis wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

I hope someone in this NG will take a look at the Skype encryption
because I have my doubts about it.

Nothing you say is of any value to any government.

Right. And cryptography is pointless, because honest, decent,
hard-working people have nothing to hide anyway!

/me rolls eyes

How could you possibly know what is and what is not of value to the
hundreds of governmental entities of the world?
[/quote]
I never said crypto is pointless.

Just in the grand scheme of things I'm more worried about some person
on the net sniffing out my CC [for example] than I am of the
government reading my emails or tapping my phone.

So long as I pay my taxes I'm sure the Canadian government is
perfectly happy to let me be a statistic.

Tom

Dave U. Random...

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 1:36 am

Guest

"Tom St Denis" <tom at (no spam) iahu.ca> wrote in message news:ed2ca6cf-d6cc-4446-
86dd-0e4aca83a73c at (no spam) f16g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
On Nov 4, 4:52 am, Noob <r... at (no spam) 127.0.0.1> wrote:
[quote]Tom St Denis wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

I hope someone in this NG will take a look at the Skype encryption
because I have my doubts about it.

Nothing you say is of any value to any government.

Right. And cryptography is pointless, because honest, decent,
hard-working people have nothing to hide anyway!

/me rolls eyes

How could you possibly know what is and what is not of value to the
hundreds of governmental entities of the world?
[/quote]
I never said crypto is pointless.

Just in the grand scheme of things I'm more worried about some person
on the net sniffing out my CC [for example] than I am of the
government reading my emails or tapping my phone.

So long as I pay my taxes I'm sure the Canadian government is
perfectly happy to let me be a statistic.

Tom

=========================================================

Well, that's the point, isn't it? As long as you keep your trap shut
and do as they tell you they'll say: 'He's a little guy, let him be',
but as soon as you open your YAP and start criticizing them or worse
still, become a political opponent, they'll start digging and reading
your e-mail, listen to your phone conversations and your instant
messaging for smut to smear you with.

And the U.S. government agencies are probably profiling every person in
the world, only the ones on the Internet off course, to determine if
they have terrorist or anarchistic tendencies. I'm not sure about you
but I find it dispicable that I'm being investigated without a judge
looking at evidence and branding me a suspect. That's the PARADIGM
SHIFT that has occurred in the last decade: in the past you could only
be investigated if you were a suspect, today EVERYONE'S a suspect ALL
THE TIME. I believe we should fight this and the only way I know how to
is with encryption. I urge people to encrypt ALL their traffic and
websites.

Noob...

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:34 am

Guest

Anonymous wrote:

[quote]I hope someone in this NG will take a look at the Skype encryption
because I have my doubts about it.
[/quote]
Sorry to disappoint, but Skype only intends to open source the GUI.

http://share.skype.com/sites/linux/2009/11/skype_open_source.html

"""
Yes, there's an open source version of Linux client being developed.
This will be a part of larger offering, but we can't tell you much more
about that right now. Having an open source UI will help us get adopted
in the "multicultural" land of Linux distributions, as well as on other
platforms and will speed up further development. We will update you once
more details are available.
"""

Noob...

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:52 am

Guest

Tom St Denis wrote:

[quote]Anonymous wrote:

I hope someone in this NG will take a look at the Skype encryption
because I have my doubts about it.

Nothing you say is of any value to any government.
[/quote]
Right. And cryptography is pointless, because honest, decent,
hard-working people have nothing to hide anyway!

/me rolls eyes

How could you possibly know what is and what is not of value to the
hundreds of governmental entities of the world?

[quote]I'd be more worried about corporate interests peeking into your
privacy if anything else.
[/quote]
Yes. Internet Service Providers performing Deep Packet Inspection is a
very real threat to privacy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_packet_inspection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorm
http://epic.org/privacy/dpi/
http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2008/05/deep-packet-inspection-under-assault-from-canadian-critics.ars

Anonymous...

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 7:01 am

Guest

Tom St Denis...

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 2:10 pm

Guest

On Nov 4, 6:36 am, Dave U. Random <anonym... at (no spam) anonymitaet-im-inter.net>
wrote:
[quote]Well, that's the point, isn't it? As long as you keep your trap shut
and do as they tell you they'll say: 'He's a little guy, let him be',
but as soon as you open your YAP and start criticizing them or worse
still, become a political opponent, they'll start digging and reading
your e-mail, listen to your phone conversations and your instant
messaging for smut to smear you with.
[/quote]
I don't know what fantasy world you live in but I know plenty of
people who fought "the man" publicly and lived to tell the tale.
Bernstein is one of them, so is Greg Rose, and quite a few of other
regulars here. I have a friends who are politicians in the
opposition, heck I used to openly develop free open source crypto
software.

Reality is you have to [usually] be a prick for the government to care
about you. Now not all countries are the same, but In North America
at least short of being a criminal they're not going to care about
you.

I could run a website claiming that I hate Stephen Harper and not only
would nobody would care, but nobody in the government would take
notice either.

[quote]And the U.S. government agencies are probably profiling every person in
the world, only the ones on the Internet off course, to determine if
they have terrorist or anarchistic tendencies. I'm not sure about you
but I find it dispicable that I'm being investigated without a judge
looking at evidence and branding me a suspect. That's the PARADIGM
SHIFT that has occurred in the last decade: in the past you could only
be investigated if you were a suspect, today EVERYONE'S a suspect ALL
THE TIME. I believe we should fight this and the only way I know how to
is with encryption. I urge people to encrypt ALL their traffic and
websites.
[/quote]
You live in a fantasy world.

Tom

Tom St Denis...

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 3:53 pm

Guest

On Nov 4, 7:33 pm, Paul Rubin <http://phr... at (no spam) NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:
[quote]Tom St Denis <t... at (no spam) iahu.ca> writes:

Reality is you have to [usually] be a prick for the government to care
about you. Now not all countries are the same, but In North America
at least short of being a criminal they're not going to care about you.

Why do you think they have to care about you in order to intercept
your traffic? They have enough monitoring capability and storage
capacity to intercept everybody, whether or not they care about them.
[/quote]
I never said they don't tap it, I'm saying it's of little to no
consequence.

Put it another way, I'm more afraid of my neighbour using my secrets
against me [like my banking info] than my government, who has all my
info anyways, from using it against me.

I'm not stupid, I realize there are places on earth where human rights
are not honoured. But in Canada and the States, as dramatic as people
like to be, the government really isn't out to get them. So in the
context I'd be more afraid of Skype tracking who you call and when,
then selling that to marketers or other random companies to then use
to target advertisements better and otherwise annoy people.

Tom

Tom St Denis...

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:21 pm

Guest

On Nov 4, 9:14 pm, Paul Rubin <http://phr... at (no spam) NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:
[quote]Tom St Denis <t... at (no spam) iahu.ca> writes:

I'm not stupid, I realize there are places on earth where human rights
are not honoured. But in Canada and the States, as dramatic as people
like to be, the government really isn't out to get them.

Maybe not today, but what about in the year 2030 or 2040, if any of us
are still around then? Who can predict what can happen in a few
decades? We have the example of 1930's Europe to scare us. If the US
or Canadian government is replaced by a Taliban-like dictatorship in
20 years, do you want them to have a vault full of recordings of the
steamy and/or blasphemous conversations that you're having today?
[/quote]
I think if history teaches us anything is that when people go really
bad they need little rational reason to hurt one another. I mean come
on, "jews are the reason for the depression" ... really? I'm sure
that was based in scientific fact and well reasoned arguments.

My point above all is for people to realize what their REAL threats
are.

It's like this H1N1 scare. In Canada you are more likely to be
MURDERED while waiting in line for the flu shot than to die of ANY
flu. You're more likely to die of Cancer or Heart disease yet they
continually advertise McDonalds and Tim Hortons [a donut shop] between
news stories about H1N1.

People often lack perspective because they're ignorant of the facts.

Today, in America, you're more likely to be victim of improper privacy
and security by private interests. Sure the man might have your voice
on tape somewhere, but what does that actually mean in terms of your
ability to enjoy life?

Tom

Paul Rubin...

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 7:33 pm

Guest

Tom St Denis <tom at (no spam) iahu.ca> writes:
[quote]Reality is you have to [usually] be a prick for the government to care
about you. Now not all countries are the same, but In North America
at least short of being a criminal they're not going to care about you.
[/quote]
Why do you think they have to care about you in order to intercept
your traffic? They have enough monitoring capability and storage
capacity to intercept everybody, whether or not they care about them.

robertwessel2 at (no spam) yahoo.com...

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 8:13 pm

Guest

On Nov 4, 9:55 pm, gordonb.ig... at (no spam) burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) wrote:
[quote]It's like this H1N1 scare. In Canada you are more likely to be
MURDERED while waiting in line for the flu shot than to die of ANY
flu.

Do you have actual figures on that? I'm willing to believe that
(in Canada) you are more likely to be murdered than die of any flu.
I'm not so sure about being murdered while in line for the flu shot,
though. Do you have any actual figures on people-hours spent waiting
in line for flu shots?
[/quote]

Hmmm... two minutes of searching turned up a murder rate for Canada
of 1.9/100,000, which, given a population of about 33.8 million,
yields about 640 murders per year. Normal flu deaths per year in
Canada (from the Canadian Medical Association Journal) appear to be
estimated to be 700-2500 annually (this contrasts with earlier
estimates of 500-1500).

So basically in a “good” flu years you have a roughly equal chance of
dying from the flu or being murdered. Of course for most individuals
the odds of being murdered are going to be far less than the nominal
1.9/100,000 rate. On the flip side, some sizable segments of the
population (basically the not-young, not-old, not sick group) are also
much less likely to die of the flu than others, but I think murder
rates are likely more concentrated.

And as to the standing in line issue… If you wait nine hours for a
flu shot, you’d have approximately a 1000-fold lesser chance of being
murdered (while in line) than of annually dying of the flu.

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