Microsoft won’t say if Skype has a wiretap backdoor

Microsoft-Skype Snooping Accusations Push All the Paranoia Buttons*

from slashgear.com: No one likes to think their private conversations can be eavesdropped on by a third-party. The United States government and law enforcement agencies have been trying to force VoIP carriers such as Skype and other digital communications companies to include a backdoor that would allow police and government agencies to institute a wiretap on online communications. The surveillance laws have been proposed not only in the US but in other countries as well.

The proposed laws would force software companies to add backdoors to allow wiretapping in certain instances. Skype has historically resisted any attempt to get it to institute a backdoor for legal wiretapping. However, there is some indication from an unlikely source that things may have changed at Skype with regards to a backdoor. Hackers originally alleged that changes made to Skype’s architecture seemed to be able to make it easier for wiretapping by law enforcement agencies.

Microsoft won’t confirm or deny that it can intercept phone calls. A Microsoft spokesperson said that the VoIP service cooperates with law enforcement agencies as much as is legally and technically possible. However, we do know that Microsoft was granted a patent in June of 2011 for “legal intercept” technology designed to be used with VoIP services such as Skype. The patent documentation said that the technology would allow Skype to “silently copy communication transmitted via the communication session.”

#DataDump: Satellites, CISPA, Space Boat and more

'Internet doomsday' July 9, claims FBI*

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Equipment Maker Caught Installing Backdoor in Control System Code*
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High Court rules iiNet not responsible for its customers' illegal downloads*
Czechs sentenced for propagating Nazism via Facebook*
Update: Iranian oil ministry hit by cyber-attack*
Mobile Carriers Lobby Against Cellphone Location Privacy Bill*
New CISPA Draft Narrows Cybersecurity Language as Protests Loom*
CISPA Update1: Despite veto threat, House passes cybersecurity bill*
CISPA Update2: Feds Seize 36 Criminal Carding Sites*
"The hidden side of your soul": How the FBI uses the Web as a child porn honeypot*
FBI Uses 'Sledgehammer' to Seize E-Mail Server in Search for Bomb Threat Evidence*
Super Secret Hypersonic Aircraft Flew Out of Its Skin*
Russian Defense ministry tests electromagnetic weapon*
Nissan Hacked; Employee Credentials Stolen*
Deniable War Crimes?: Robots fighting wars could be blamed for mistakes*
Explosion, Fireball Reported In CA, NV*
Space 'boat' could explore the oceans of Saturn's moon Titan*
3 things you never knew the Apple iPhone can do*
iPhone app (Tactical NAV)*
IPhones Guide Artillery as Pentagon Plans App Store*
Video: Tactical NAV on the Armed Forces Network

great chinese-iranian drone theft caper

Mike Harris, a Veterans Today writer, provides his take in article, "The Great Chinese-Iranian Stealth Reconnaissance Drone Theft Caper." Harris, technical adviser to a Congressman, who served on House Committee for Science and Technology during nineties, believes caper dates to time United States sent semiconductor manufacturing offshore.  During Clinton-Gore years, military electronics manufacturing standards were relaxed and off the shelf components found way into military equipment.  Harris observes semiconductors, are now, primarily manufactured by China and suspects a firmware backdoor planted in chips.

"In the case of the stolen CIA drone, the hardware with the backdoor was most likely embedded within the telemetry system, which is the multi-function brain of the drone, in fact every system within the drone is routed through the telemetry system, every sensor, every control, everything," writes Harris, "All the Iranians needed was to be able to emulate one of the multitudes of frequencies used for telemetry purposes to trigger the embedded hardware purchased from the Chinese and installed within a US secret drone." Harris calls for thorough review of systems manufactured since 1998!

Brooks Agnew, X-Squared Radio host, interviewed Harris recently, who calls drone theft "intelligence gift of century". Agnew and Harris discuss possibility, Iran hacked US spy satellite to first detect drone's location - interesting stuff!