Anyone using Skype on FC11 ?

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 31 August 2009, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>On Sun, 2009-08-30 at 21:33 -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
>> Sorry Patrick, but our govco snoops have been bragging they have skype
>> decoded now for about 2 years.
>
>If by "decoded" you mean "payload encryption broken routinely without
>the use of keyloggers or Trojans", do you have a reference?
>
>> And I assume skype has been changing things too, but whatever one
>> group can do, another group can undo.  Its just the
>> nature of the internet for that to happen.
>
>That's a seductive generalization, but it *is* a generalization. It's
>meaningless without more specificity. For example, crypto is entirely
>based on one group doing something which another group cannot undo with
>any realistic set of resources. Yes, crypto can be poorly implemented
>(which is a big argument in favour of open source) but it can also be
>extremely secure if done right. Is it done right in Skype? I don't know,
>but to date I know of no evidence to suggest it has problems. I'd be
>interested to hear if you have any.
>
>poc

Search on /. for skype & spooks.  Or if you are really confident, use it to 
plan blowing something up on the 9/11/01 anniversary but plan to have your 
plans interrupted.

Also, there is another attack that was discussed just in the last 36 hours or 
so, where a compromised machine makes an mp3 out of your conversation, and 
then mails it someplace.  Presumably a winderz box I imagine.  Hopefully us 
linux folks have enough sense to not let that happen.

I used skype a few times when I was in upstate MI for a while, mainly cuz the 
telco's up there think  long distance is worth 41 cents a damned minute, just 
to call a business 7 miles down the road.  Those I could put on expenses, but 
by the time I bought a card, and dialed about 30 damned numbers without a 
typu, it simply wasn't worth it.  Everybody up there has a cellphone, so I 
bought the nationwide plan when it became obvious that was the only way to 
have working communications.  The echos, dropouts  and lags in skype were so 
bad it was impossible to carry on an intelligent conversation with anyone.  
Now I'm glad, and echelon gets to listen to my drivel in what passes for 
cellphone hifi.  And I expect they _do_ listen to what I say, or write as my 
presence on another mailing list, where there is only one rule, and that is 
that there are not any rules.  That right there should give anyone who wants 
to, enough info to find that list.  We're a bunch of miss-fits and we have a 
ball at times tweaking the establishments collective noses.  We have realized 
that old saying is true, that when you need the police in seconds, they are 
just minutes away.

Like the sign on Chuck Norris's front porch says, we don't dial 911.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
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Blame Saint Andreas -- it's all his fault.