I'm perplexed as to why it took the company this long to make a significant comment. The issue of whether a change in its architecture -- to route calls through supernodes -- made it easier for calls to be intercepted has been kicking around since May. The company's refusal to comment on the issue led to some damning (and inaccurate) stories in the media.
Mark Gillett, chief development and operations officer of the Microsoft-owned Skype, published a lengthy blog post Thursday to address questions about why the Internet calling company changed its architecture. Given that the Washington Post recently described Skype as "the online phone service long favored by political dissidents, criminals and others eager to communicate beyond the reach of governments,” I was amused to see Gillett note early in his blog post that "[Skype] works for Moms and Dads, teachers, soldiers, kids and sisters, brothers, grandparents, lovers and old friends all over the world." (And it does; I love using Skype to talk to out-of-country friends about non-criminal matters.)
Gillett sought to dispel some "myths," starting with the idea that Skype changed "its architecture at the behest of Microsoft in order to provide law enforcement with greater access to our users' communications."
Skype's architecture decisions are based on our desire to provide the best possible product to our users. Skype was in the process of developing and moving supernodes to cloud servers significantly ahead of the Microsoft acquisition of Skype. Skype first deployed 'mega-supernodes' to the cloud to improve reliability of the Skype software and service in December 2010.
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It has been suggested that as a result of recent architecture changes Skype now monitors and records audio and video calls of our users.
False.
The move to in-house hosting of "supernodes" does not provide for monitoring or recording of calls. "Supernodes" help Skype clients to locate each other so that Skype calls can be made. Simply put, supernodes act as a distributed directory of Skype users. Skype to Skype calls do not flow through our data centres and the "supernodes" are not involved in passing media (audio or video) between Skype clients.
via Skype - The Big Blog - What Does Skype's Architecture Do?.
Gillett does acknowledge that Skype is able to provide instant messages to authorities when a "law enforcement entity follows the appropriate procedures."
It's a good head-on take on the rumors that have been floating around for months. The only question is why the company didn't publish this post earlier on.
Of course, it's still true that feds do want to be able to tap Skype calls. Skype did not address law enforcement's "going dark" fears in this post, instead focusing on coming clean with its customers.
