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chromas
on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:32PM
from the 6854734946204569446c692020534f6e20746e457243705965540044 dept.
from the 6854734946204569446c692020534f6e20746e457243705965540044 dept.
Submitted via IRC for takyon
Back in January, Skype announced it was testing end-to-end encrypted chat conversations, secured using Signal Protocol by Open Whisper Systems. Now, the feature is available for all users on Skype iOS, Android, Linux, Mac, and Windows Desktop.
There's a bit of a limitation, however: users can only participate in one private conversation per device at a time. The private conversation can be switched to another device, but anything sent and received will be tied to whatever device is currently being used.
Source: The Verge
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Skype Now Offers End-to-End Encrypted Conversations
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"You can't teach people to be lazy - either they have it, or they don't."
-- Dagwood Bumstead
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:33PM (7 children)
No one cared.
*crickets*
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:36PM (6 children)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:51PM (2 children)
Seems like he is throwing shade on Microsoft, who wholly deserves it. Once in bed with the NSA, always in bed with the NSA.
I would find it absolutely incredible if this was a genuine attempt at providing real end-to-end encryption. Something is compromised. It will be innocuous, and thus deniable, but somehow bork the implementation sufficiently as to allow the government access.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @02:17PM (1 child)
where did this 'throwing shade' term come from?
it seems to be hip and cool to disparage someone disparaging someone by using that phrase. i have noticed an uptick in its use in mainstream news sites, which means it is either common now, or will soon be abandoned by the cool kids that made it up because its not cool if everyone uses it.
assuming they didnt copy it from something else, which is what i would like to know
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:17PM
It's a phrase from the African-American vernacular (ebonics). Similar meaning and usage to "throwing salt". There may be a biblical origin, but I'm not sure. "Selling wolf tickets" is my favorite ebonic phrase (same as "crying wolf").
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:53PM
It's Microsoft. It's to be expected.
Skype claimed to have end-to-end encryption in the past, although it was probably broken [blackhat.com] anyway.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by PocketSizeSUn on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:55PM
Perhaps .. but skype is the only preferred by microserfs and mircroserf wannabees.... ya know the colon of tech.
Also every other platform of note rolled out (and/or emphasized) basic encryption years ago ..
So yeah ... crickets.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday August 22 2018, @06:47AM
I agree with edIII, I think the comment is directed at Microsoft and the handful of people who still trust Skype.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:58AM (3 children)
Why don't you try another feature, dear Microsoft : Make a skype "light" app which gets us back to fifteen years ago, as in "here is a list of people I can call/video-call, and their current availability, a button to add more, a way to type a phone number if I have credit, and a button to turn off the app".
Really, that's all we need. And make it highly skeuomorphic too, with no white anywhere.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Wednesday August 22 2018, @04:42PM (2 children)
I understand where you're coming from; I used Skype in its pre-Microsoft incarnation and it worked well. But I respectfully disagree with you: Encrypted conversations are an important and necessary feature for privacy's sake.
But for Skype, that's impossible: Microsoft offering "private, encrypted communication" requires too much suspension of disbelief.
Even if Microsoft Skype conversations are indeed encrypted and not spied on by Skype itself--no way to know--most people are running that Skype under Windows 10, which is a product designed from the ground up to spy on everything you do. No reason they couldn't take all your audio, video, chat, etc. from the app before it's encrypted, and a dark partnership with the NSA as a reason that they might do so. In short, they have motive and opportunity.
The continued popularity of Windows is an indicator that means that many don't care enough about privacy to actually attend to it, but for those who feel uneasy making this decision, using the new "Skype! Totally Privacy Edition" may well help them feel better about themselves while doing nothing substantive.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday August 22 2018, @04:55PM (1 child)
For all of history, communicating across any non-trivial network has always run the risk of interception.
You can still plan a revolution with your neighbor with a string and two yogurt pots. Or encrypt your own packets on your HP calculator before typing them into the evil spy computer OS.
It'd be nice if people stopped feeling oppressed when they have more freedom than anyone before them.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Wednesday August 22 2018, @05:32PM
The problem with using this kind of observation as justification for a particular communication method without considering other factors is the normal distribution, also known as the bell curve [thefreedictionary.com].
Some of the communication methods will have interception risk at the ends of the bell curve (very low risk) and some will have interception risk at the center (high risk, such as Windows 10 which is designed to intercept and transmit the user's activity to home base).
So, while your statements are arguably true, they are not relevant to the point you seem to be trying to make. A reasonable risk evaluation, on the other hand, is relevant, and recommended. Most people, especially Windows 10 users, are going to be able to use Skype without significant additional risk, but only because their communications are already compromised.
If that doesn't matter to you, then it shouldn't hurt for you to know it.
If it does matter to you, you may want to consider it.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Wednesday August 22 2018, @06:06AM
You ruined Skype. You loaded every URL that was sent via encrypted conversations. You have an awful reputation for security. No thanks, we're not interested in anything like this from you Microsoft.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 22 2018, @03:11PM
Work switched from a roll your own solution IP phones to Skype integrated IP Phones a while ago. Other than that, the one or two people I had Skype to talk with, switched to Link.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"