Skype Apparently Threatens Russian National Security

Mr.Bananas writes "Reuters reports that 'Russia's most powerful business lobby moved to clamp down on Skype and its peers this week, telling lawmakers that the Internet phone services are a threat to Russian businesses and to national security.' The lobby, closely associated with Putin's political party, cites concerns of 'a likely and uncontrolled fall in profits for the core telecom operators,' as well as a fear that law enforcement agencies have thus far been unable to listen in on Skype conversations due to its 256-bit encryption."

Comments

the 21st century is a bitch

[girlintraining]

'a likely and uncontrolled fall in profits for the core telecom operators,'

Yeah, I bet the horse shoe manufacturers lobbied hard against the introduction of the self-propelled carriage too.

Re:Security?

[shutdown -p now]

A few fun facts about Russian laws on the matter.

Russia has a mandatory program for all telecommunication providers (ISPs included), wherein they should have equipment to log all network usage. According to the law, access to that equipment is restricted to law enforcement and intelligence services, and only with court permission; however, they do not have to show the court order to providers, and some parts of the law can be interpreted as meaning that order can be obtained after the fact.

On to more funny stuff. In Russia, "in the interests of informational security", it is illegal to "research, develop, sell or use encryption measures, as well as protected storage devices" without a license; as well as import them (all quotes are translations of the actual law). Enforcement of this is explicitly assigned to the police and Federal Security Service.

Now, I've no idea if Skype has a license or not. They probably do, but I imagine that FSS guys aren't very happy about present state of affairs regardless...

Soul of Russia feeds on this stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

When the Kremlin-backed government of Chechnya killed Estmirova, it killed the soul of Russia.

While the killing is tragic, I find that statement humorous.

The problem with Russia isn't just one man - whether it is Putin or his sock puppet president - being cruel. The whole administration, culture, etc. is deeply corrupt. I challenge anyone to drive across the country... No, half the country... Without being stopped by the "police" (militia) for no real reason and having to pay them directly some fine that they just came up with. And I'm not saying that "This will happen once". It will happen about a dozen times.

And the people there are fine with it or at least very used to it. Have learned to live with it. Over all politics - or lack of them - is not a light subject for discussion in Russia but if you do take it up there, you won't hear much heated arguments about how things will need to change.

I was once listening to an lecturer who talked about Russian mindset in Engecon (University of Engineering and Economics in St. Petersburg) and am very willing to agree with her that it well predates the communist era. Their whole history has been full of conquest and dictators. They have never even tried actual democracy and have learned to not really care all that much.

In fact, nationalism is extremely strong in Russia. I mean, they are willing to take the "We have a great country and must respect and support it and it's leaders, no matter what!" even further than people from USA...

So, it is entertaining to read "They killed the soul of Russia". Honestly, if majority of Russians cared about this, it would not have happened. While the Militia is pretty cruel, a few percent of people can never oppress everyone else if the majority really hates the situation enough. But they don't. It's not that they feared too much, it is that they care about completely different things.

Re:Skype is open to taps

[rxmd]

German police let that one slip, so did a few other arrests.

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Skype_and_SSL_Interception_letters_-_Bavaria_-_Digitask

I don't think you've read that document. There's even an English version. While it's not improbable that Skype does have a backdoor of some sorts, the document doesn't prove anything about that.

They talk about two pieces of software. Their "Skype Capture Unit" is a trojan installed on the computer of the person under surveillance. If you have a trojan on your target machine, you can listen to anything, Skype or otherwise. The point of the name is probably to be able to sell the police other "Foo Capture Units" in the future. The other piece of software is a generic MITM attack on SSL-encrypted connection, nothing specific to Skype.

Re:Security?

[plover]

I suspect you haven't read a single book on Soviet-era history, on the repression of dissidents, or any of the histories that have been revealed since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Pick up a book by Mitrokhin, and start reading about the actual history of the KGB as recorded in the KGB archives. It's amazing how well it confirms much of the supposed "CIA propaganda" about repression inside the USSR.

Then start reading some of the Venona decrypts. Hayes has an excellent book that tracks Soviet propaganda activity through the U.S., confirming the Soviets planted counterclaims, and pushed the idea of "CIA propaganda". Finally, start checking the stories out in the KGB's own words in books like Spy Handler by Cherkashin.

Or, if you just like reading stories about ordinary people being made miserable by a thuggish regime, pick up One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Oh, yeah, it's all just propaganda. Sorry for my cruel, cruel joke.