DomainK Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 The intelligence agencies have requested the government to block skype in India and apparently the government has agreed. Reason is that skype has refused to share their encryption codes with India making it difficult to intercept terrorist conversations. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Spooks-want-govt-to-block-Skype/articleshow/5082066.cms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketics Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 man this is messed up. I almost daily make conference with my friends from India. Not that others messengers are bad for voice chat, but just that Skype ownz all other messengers in terms of voice chat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graphic23 Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Fine by me even though I use it. National Security counts for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketics Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 Fine by me even though I use it. National Security counts for me. very true.. I concur. similar thoughts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamy Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 damn. but national security comes first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomainK Posted October 3, 2009 Author Share Posted October 3, 2009 Skype has shared the code with the US and the Chinese governments (among others). There is no reason for them to refuse to do so with India. They deserve a ban. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbestfriend Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 Oh my god.... We use skype in our office to communicate to our US office...We can't imagine working without skype:(( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaNk Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 I use Skype Video Chat when I'm in india .. they have better Quality / Fast Video Quality .. BUT india first :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suraj Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 I only used it to chat with girls from India Transatlantic long distance crap didn't work for me anyway so not a big loss Go India :isalute: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamy Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 Oh my god.... We use skype in our office to communicate to our US office...We can't imagine working without skype:(( gtalk :dontknow: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomainK Posted October 4, 2009 Author Share Posted October 4, 2009 gtalk :dontknow: Skype has become the most accepted mode of official verbal communication. Almost everyone uses skype for VOIP and video/audio conferencing. Now if skype is banned in India, it will be difficult to ask the overseas clients and offices to start using Gtalk because we can not use it anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikred Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 Why is skype being such a d____ when asked to share the code? No compromise with our security. :isalute: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbestfriend Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 gtalk :dontknow: gtalk doesn't have many features which skype has... ex:skype conference, editing chats , skype call etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomainK Posted October 4, 2009 Author Share Posted October 4, 2009 Why is skype being such a d____ when asked to share the code? No compromise with our security. :isalute: I think we can blame our own government for that. It has almost become a norm that our government requests portals or web service providers for information, they say no and we whine and sit down. It has happened n number of times with Google, yahoo, MS etc. We send a request, they say no, we sit down. The same companies make millions of dollars from India and consider India as one of the biggest markets for future. The best we do in the name of protest it to send an official letter of protest. So everyone knows that Indian government can be taken for granted. Once there was an anti Indian blog that GOI wanted removed. They asked Google (blogspot). Google asked them to F off. So GOI decided to play hardball and ordered a ban. The government idiots tried doing that and ended up banning entire blogspot. It took them a few hours to realize their mistake. Blogspot was down in India for the entire time. GOI then corrected it and issued an apology to Google. India became a laughing stock for world techies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graphic23 Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 I dont see what the GOI can do with Skype though? If its using a particular channel that we want to investigate, and they don't want to let us use it, eff them. We're not going to sit here, and convince them, are we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabu Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 If it is for national security, go India go...:isalute::isalute::isalute: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CricketGirl Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 meh! the reasons are justified i dont call anyone in india so i dont care! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamy Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 meh! the reasons are justified i dont call anyone in india so i dont care! impure :finger: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maggot_brain Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 This thread and the TOI illustrates why non-technical people should not write about things that they no nothing about. Encryption codes? Skype has not given their encryption codes to the US government in fact they have stated that they will not comply with the US' wiretap programme FISA. In China, you have to use a modified version of Skype that does censor messages and report back to the authorities, but this must be done BEFORE encryption is applied. There is no way Skype could give their 'encryption codes' to the Indian government. When you sign up for Skype a personal encryption AES key is generated for you and stored on your PC. To decrypt Skype conversations you would have to know THIS key. Unless the Indian govt can gain access to suspects' computers or intercept the key exchange (impossible), this is NOT possible. The TOI is full of ****. They cite 'sources' as stating that the encryption codes have been given to the US and China. I don't believe them. As an aside on the right hand side of that article is a link to 'wardrobe malfunctions'. TOI has really gone downhill in my opinion. The article is very poor journalism indeed. For all those who believe it's ok to intercept communications and the loss of privacy associated with this, you should be ashamed of yourselves. As soon as a govt makes a decision that infringes on its citizens rights, all the sheep fall into line. I fail to see how skype can be blocked. If they block the TCP/UDP ports Skype uses, they'll simply switch to different ports. As Skype is a decentralised peer-to-peer network they can't block access to the Skype central server as there isn't one. Outside of costly traffic analysis Skype blocking is impractical. If they block downloads from the Skype website, then the Skype software will be distributed via filesharing networks instead. Even if Skype was blocked, 'terrorists' could just switch to another encrypted VOIP like zrtp. It's an arms race that the Indian govt can't win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamy Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 :blink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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