03/14/2013
"Russian security services can tap Skype conversations. According to major IT-security players, the national security agencies including both FSB (Russian abbreviation for "Federal Security Service") and the police have been able to monitor Skype conversations and track user locations "for a couple of years now", says "IB-Group" CEO Ilia Sachkov - "This is exactly why our employees are not allowed to discuss any business matter on Skype".
"Since its acquisition of Skype in May 2011, Microsoft has added a legitimate monitoring technology to the tool", says newspaper's undisclosed source in Kremlin. "Now any user can be switched to a special mode where the encryption keys are generated on a server rather than on the user's phone or computer". Microsoft has been providing this technology to security services across the world, including Russia.
The two information security experts interviewed by the newspaper claim that access to Skype conversations is often granted to the secret service without even a court order. Sometimes it is simply provided "upon request". The newspaper's source in the Interior Ministry (simply put - the police) confirms that monitoring Skype users is not a complex task for a law enforcement agent in Russia.
The official representatives of the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service have refused to comment.
Alex Yumashev
Alex has founded Jitbit in 2005 and is a software engineer passionate about customer support.