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.”

'Leap Second Bug' Causes Glitches for Major Websites, Airlines

from datacenterknowledge.com: Computer problems with the Amadeus airline reservation system caused long lines and traveler delays at airports across Australia this weekend, as the outage wreaked havoc with the check-in systems used by Qantas and Virgin Australia. The outage appears to be related to the "Leap Second Bug” in which the addition of a single second to the world’s atomic clocks caused problems with IT systems.

More than 400 Qantas flights around Australia were delayed by at least two hours as staff switched to manual check-ins. The outage at Amadeus, one of the world’s major reservation systems, lasted about an hour but had a longer impact on air travelers and airline staff.


Media reports say Qantas has blamed the leap second bug for the issues at Amadeus. A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied to Universal Time (UTC) to account for variations in the earth’s rotation speed. The Qantas problems were the most visible business impact of the problems the adjustment created or IT systems.

The leap second bug is a time-handling problem that is a distant relative of the Y2K date issue. The leap second bug bug caused problems for a number of popular web sites, including LinkedIn, Reddit, Mozilla and The Pirate Bay.

Amadeus says it handles more than 3 million airline bookings a day through its huge data center in Erding, Germany, where more than 5,000 servers process 1 billion transactions a day across its many travel businesses (see video overview and infographic for more). In a media statement, Amadeus said it is investigating the cause of the systems crash and will “take any appropriate steps to avoid this reoccurring.” The outage was the second this year for Amadeus’ reservations systems, following an incident in January.

Obama Lights the 'Flame': From 'Virtual War' To Military Conflict

#Video: Obama Ordered Cyber Attacks Against Iran
from brasschecktv.com: Over a year ago the Pentagon announced that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war and could lead to military conflict. Now it has been 'leaked' that Obama ordered and even escalated cyber attacks against Iran. So what comes next?

Video: Cyber-Battles Raise Fears of Cyber-Blowback*
Obama Ordered Stuxnet to Continue After Bug Caused it to Spread Wildly*
Sen. Feinstein Calls for Hearing on Stuxnet Leaks as FBI Begins Probe*
Flame Hijacks Microsoft Update to Spread Malware Disguised As Legit Code*
A Massive Web of Fake Identities and Websites Controlled Flame Malware*
Flame Gets Suicide Command*

blended threats: will it blend?

Billy Rios shows how to exploit bugs in applications such as Java, Flash, Adobe and create your own hybrid program, which eludes your computer's security to steal files! Rios, at his website, Thoughts on Security in an Uncivilized World, recaps how to make your own blended threat, which creates code to exploit these bugs and place them in a program to do as you wish. Rios asks Will It Blend?, a presentation he gave at security conferences and created a video to show you how quickly and easily you can assemble a blended threat!