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FBI Wants To Access Terror Suspect's Skype Records (bostonglobe.com)
Milton J. Valencia, reporting for BostonGlobe: The FBI is investigating whether a third, unknown person discussed an alleged terrorism plot with Alexander Ciccolo, the Western Massachusetts man accused of planning to attack a state university with guns and explosives on behalf of the Islamic State terror group. FBI Special Agent Jeffrey J. Lawrence said in an affidavit filed in US District Court in Springfield last week that Ciccolo told a witness who was cooperating with the FBI that he had discussed his terrorism plans with one other person. The affidavit was part of an application for a search warrant authorities filed with the court. Officials are seeking access to Ciccolo's online Skype account as part of their investigation into the alleged terror plot. The search warrant seeks to have Microsoft -- which owns Skype -- provide the government with logs and the content of conversations and written messages made on Ciccolo's account, as well as passwords. Given Microsoft's stance on these matters, the company is likely to hand over the data FBI is looking for.
Headline should be "FBI Wants To Access Terror Suspect's Skype Records, legally and above the board this time" , because, as reported previously (US Mining Data Directly From 9 Silicon Valley Companies) with PRISM the DHS can pretty much do it already, only not blessed by public courts or clear legislation.
They are working on a search warrant? That's good. That shouldn't be news.
Now what? Are we supposed to be shocked about the usage of the existence of an account?
Where is the Skype datacenter? The US or Ireland? That might be the more interesting aspect of this.
They aren't stupid, just normal. Even terrorists don't want to go through the hassle of actually getting SIP to work, nor fiddle with the hodgepodge collection of so-called "telecommunication" packages available via FOSS.