Big Brother listening to Skype users in China?

by Stevie Smith - Oct 2 2008, 13:00

Recently hit with negative exposure regarding online monitoring and censorship ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing, China is once again in the spotlight after Canadian researchers discovered evidence suggesting that personal conversations have been monitored by a VoIP telephony service operated in the country by Skype and Chinese Internet provider TOM Online.

Researchers uncover possible monitoring of Skype service in China. Image: Aleutia/Flickr.

According to a report published on Wednesday by the Information Warfare Monitor and OpenNet Initiative -- Asia, the human-rights research team claims to have uncovered a monitoring and storage program used to seek out and hold online text-based chats deemed to contain politically sensitive communications. The report, authored by University of Toronto researcher Nart Villeneuvre, outlined that the data was stored on a total of eight servers operated by the joint venture, and included millions of records containing personal user information and a breakdown of those outside China who participated in voice calls through the Skype-TOM Online service. Described as little more than a “flaw” in the TOM Online system by Skype spokeswoman Jennifer Caukin, who went on to say Skype was “very concerned to hear about the apparent security issue,” TOM Online was apparently quick to address the glitch after Skype alerted the China-based company, reports the Wall Street Journal.While the report did not venture a connection between the security hole and the Chinese government, it revealed the discovery of an encryption key that could well have been used to easily decrypt and access personal user records, which included data on mobile phone accounts, mobile phone text messages, and Skype-TOM Online user information.Notably, the report also outlined that user messages held by the servers contained flagged keywords connected to sensitive political situations including opposition to the ruling Communist Party, outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong, and also the independence of Taiwan.The report also offered that the joint VoIP venture “may be engaged in more targeted surveillance.”

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Peter Parkes (Skype Blogger)Oct 2nd, 2008 - 20:52:05

It's important to remember that the issues highlighted in the report affect only the TOM-Skype software distributed in China, and that standard versions of Skype are unaffected.

Josh Silverman, Skype's president, has posted a statement on the Skype blog explaining where we stand currently, and what we're doing to sort things out.

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