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Researchers ID Skype, BitTorrent Users
itwbennett writes "Researchers have figured out a way to link online Skype users to their activity on peer-to-peer networks like BitTorrent. The team was able to sift out the nodes through which Skype calls are routed and determine the user's real IP address by sniffing the packets. To correlate the identified Skype users with files shared on BitTorrent, the researchers built tools to collect BitTorrent file identifiers, a BitTorrent crawler to collect IP addresses on the network and a verifier to match an online Skype user with an online BitTorrent user (PDF). 'As soon as the BitTorrent crawler detects a matching IP address, it signals the verifier, which immediately calls the corresponding Skype user and, at the same time, initiates a handshake with the BitTorrent client,' they wrote."
I guess it will depend on who they are working for. If it is for the CIA, FBI or RIAA, then they are crime fighters. If they work for Anonymous, Wikileaks, or the Chinese government, then they are criminals.
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Seeing as how this relies on packet sniffing of an unaware party's network traffic, I'm pretty sure any application of this without a warrant would constitute wiretapping. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's my understanding of it.
Ring ring... incoming Skype call, it's the RIAA.
ring ring ring ... ... ... ... ... ...
"Hello."
"Hello? Is there anyone there?"
"We know what you downloaded last summer!!!"
If you can't be good, be good at it!
If they were criminals, wouldn't they keep their methods secret in order to blackmail or otherwise monetize it in some way? Research like this is the only way that security gets better.
If the researchers can do it, the bad guys may already be doing it.
Are you some kind of dumbshit? You'd rather the government did this to you and you had no idea it was possible? Now we know this form of tracking is possible and we can develop a defense against it.
All it is is data mining packets from skype nodes and comparing them to open torrent peer lists. This is not really surprising or scary to me. There are other 'researchers' who can link alot more data to you then this.
Because NAT and UPNP wouldn't make a random Skype user and a different BitTorrent user appear to be coming from the same IP address..
If you use bittorrent, then you should expect no privacy at all as the protocol openly allows others to get the list of users.
What's illegal about it? What federal or state statute have they violated?
Wiretapping. Conspiracy to collect information assumed to be private, via technological means.
Robocalling (the Skype phone, duh). Wardialing (same thing).
They've violated a boatload of communications regulations... and the fact that they did it as part of a multi-researcher study means it was premeditated, and they conspired to do it. Conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor is a felony.
The problem here would be that anyone who tries to have them arrested and/or takes them to civil court will be presumed guilty of something, because why else would we care if someone can tie our online activities to our real-world identities?
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An ip address you.publicly broadcast is personal information?
Decentralizing doesn't really help, since it doesn't change the fact that Bittorrent works by advertising the IPs of the nodes and the torrents they're downloading/seeding.
What you'd need is something like onion routing, where it's hard to know who you're sharing with, even with centralized trackers.
Luckily, that exists in the form of Bittorrent over I2P.
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Fortunately I reconfigured my computer so that it doesn't broadcast an IP addr
[NO CARRIER]
Yes but you shouldn't run BT over Tor. It will be slow as shit for you and you'll be hogging the network. I encourage Tor node operators to block bittorrent over Tor (in fact I think it's blocked by default in recent releases).
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I've looked at BT over I2P. It's completely incompatible with regular Bittorrent. It's a great idea but there just aren't enough users on there to make it a replacement for regular Bittorrent.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
It should be considering it is the path to the machine that holds all of your personal information.
When you get a key duplicated, a key maker can easily sell a copy of that key, and link it to your name. What if your name is Bill Gates? "This key here is for Bill Gate's personal safe, and this one is for his house, perhaps you would like a copy?"
Just because its available, doesnt mean its not private, or doesnt come with some expectation of privacy. I dont expect the key maker to sell a copy of my key to someone who intends to harm me.
SIP.
IAX.
XMPP
If I am understanding the method properly, then anything that generates traffic can be used to correlate data, indicating that the BT user is also a user of (insert internet-using software here). Skype happens to be useful as an immediate indication of the identity of the user.
The question might then become, "What (legitimate) internet software might I be running, to cast doubt on whether I was using BT to acquire digital content illegally?"
For example, World of Warcraft uses BitTorrent to distribute patches, and can be configured to do so while you are logged in and playing. With the addition of the "Free to Play" aspect, your BitTorrent traffic might fly under the radar. I'm sure there are other pieces of software that can allow you to show good reason why your computer might have been servicing BitTorrent traffic...
Part of the problem, here, is that BitTorrent is coming under indirect attack by the media industry... most people will assume that "torrenting" is synonymous with "pirating".
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
I think this is the real issue here. It all has to be coming from problems with skype's security and nothing else. Skype should take this as a huge warning and encrypt their packet information NOW. I don't care what this is used for, people sniffing packets and being able to tell who someone is on a program like skype that is often left on 24/7 is a huge security risk for the person involved! This should NOT be happening and it's all skype's fault.
You guys are getting to hung up on the bit torrent aspect of this and should realize that it's really a major skype fuck up.
d
all language nazi's will burne in heil!