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18.03.2008 16:20 VoIP Web News
- Source: VoIP-News.comStay Current
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Could the Spitzer Scandal Save Skype?
Skype’s end-to-end encryption might have protected Spitzer from federal wiretaps. Plus, Skype video’s unscheduled debut.
Jim Higdon on March 17, 2008
When the Eliot Spitzer prostitute story broke last week, most observers were caught up with the seamy details: the Emperor’s Club Web site, the pricey hourly rate, the governor’s hooker’s MySpace page (which contains links that are generally not safe for work). But while many were gawking over the details of Client #9’s trysts with “Kristen,” VoIP watchers noticed something else: “Hey, check out Jeffery Toobin broadcasting on CNN via Skype video. That looks pretty good.”
The broadcast-journalism blog TVNewser was the first to confirm that Toobin’s better-than-average webcam appearance had been via Skype Ltd., and soon the news spread across the blogosphere — even leaping from the small puddle of tech-biusiness-VoIP blogs and into the big pond of politics, with a nod to Toobin and Skype on the Huffington Post. Beet.TV went so far as to say that CNN, Skype and Toobin made “news-gathering history” with his laptop and webcam at the poolside of his Maui hotel.
Necessity is the Mother of Invention
At first, CNN execs thought about moving Toobin to another island in the Hawaiian archipelago, where better video services could be provided, but decided against it because they didn’t want to interrupt their senior legal correspondent’s family vacation. Looking for an alternative, CNN's tech staff mentioned they had been experimenting with Skype.
"They had done a bunch of tests and were itching to try it," CNN senior vice president David Bohrman told the Hollywood Reporter. "No one had ever done it, as far as they knew."
Well, it had actually been used once before. In 2007, an Alabama FOX affiliate used Skype for live shots in the wake of a tornado disaster, according to Reuters.
TechCrunch was quick to point out that all the equipment Toobin used (laptop, webcam and microphone) had been borrowed from the hotel’s business center. The rest — such as an audio feed generated with Toobin’s cell phone and earbud headphones — was improvised.
Should Spitzer Have Used Skype?
Phil Wolff at Skype Journal asked if Skype’s end-to-end encryption might have protected Spitzer from the federal wiretaps that sealed his fate. The answer: Yes, actually.
This is a surprising answer because generally VoIP is considered much less secure than a traditional phone line (here are 10 reasons why and here are another 5). VoIP providers, due to compliance with CALEA (Communications and Law Enforcement Act), have been forced by American law-enforcement agencies to provide back doors to VoIP lines for investigative purposes, like determining if your governor is paying $1,000 per hour for sex.
According to Wired, the FBI’s DCSNet (Digital Collection Systems Network) is a comprehensive wiretapping system that covers traditional phone lines, cell phones, SMS, push-to-talk and VoIP — all run from secret FBI rooms across the country connected by an encrypted backbone separate from the Internet. But is DCSNet comprehensive enough to scour Skype for criminals’ calls?
According to DCSNet-related documents released by the Department of Justice after a lawsuit filed by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), the FBI is “struggling with peer-to-peer telephony provider Skype, which offers no central location to wiretap, [especially] with innovations like caller-ID spoofing and phone-number portability.”
Skype, headquartered in Europe, has not felt compelled to comply with the updated CALEA laws, rendering the big ear of law enforcement deaf to its millions of daily users and creating a problem for law-enforcement agencies in America, as well as in Europe.
Even if investigators tap a suspect's Internet connection, Skype’s strong encryption would only allow investigators to see the time and the duration of the call. “Only America's National Security Agency is thought to have the raw computing power required to unscramble Skype packets,” according to The Economist, “and its intelligence-gathering efforts are far removed from day-to-day law enforcement and the collection of evidence for prosecutions.”
In other words, if you’re worried about wiretaps, download Skype.
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