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A screenshot from Skype’s homepage in 2004, when end-to-end encryption was still not widely available outside messaging apps like Skype.Image Credits:TechCrunch (screenshot)
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In the early evening of March 5 , 2012 , in Cairo , Egyptian revolutionaries stormed the headquartersof the secret police shout out the State Security Investigations ( SSI ) service , a building known as “ the capital of hell ” because of its repute as a place where ruthless officer tortured prisoners .
indoors , protesters witness both intact and shredded documents , torture devices , difficult drives , compact disk , and videodisc — all document nightmarish torture and widespread surveillance .
Among the documents , protestersfound a memorandumwritten in Arabic by SSI ship’s officer about a mysterious software call in FinFisher , made by the British - German company Gamma International .
The military officer reported that FinFisher was a “ high - spirit level hacking system of rules ” with several capabilities , include the power to access email inboxes and upload “ undercover agent files ” on the target ’s gimmick , get over their communications , gaining “ double-dyed command ” over the devices of the hacked targets , and — crucially — documenting their “ success in hacking ” people ’s accounts on Skype web , which was placard as the “ most secure method of communication ” because Skype is encrypted .
In the early 2010s , Skype was the most democratic internet phone - calling app in the world , and not just in Egypt .
launch in 2003,Skype promise its usersunprecedented privacy , with calls “ highly unafraid with remnant - to - end encryption , ” which — in theory — made it impossible for internet hackers or spies to translate the chats and take heed in on call while they traveled across the internet . That ’s why Egyptian spies needed to hack forthwith into people ’s calculator with FinFisher to hear in on their targets ’ Skype calls .
“ Skype call have excellent sound quality and are extremely secure with end - to - terminal encryption,”Skype ’s homepageread in 2004 .
Skype ’s encoding was a radical and innovational feature at the sentence . In the mid-1990s , legendary cryptologist Phil Zimmermann make Pretty Good Privacy , or PGP , software that allow masses to make files or emails individual withend - to - end encoding , meaning only the sender and pass receiver could study the contentedness of the message . But PGP was clunky and was n’t included in well-off - to - role chat and call apps .
Now , more than 20 days later , end - to - end encryption is baked into apps that are used by billion of citizenry , most of whom may not see their messages and calls are secured with this data - scramble technology . Apple ’s iMessage and FaceTime , Facebook Messenger , Signal , and WhatsApp , among others , are all end - to - end encrypted by default .
But in 2003 , Skype was the first one to put up this floor of encryption and privacy .
After it launched , Skype sparked anger among jurisprudence enforcement delegacy all over the world . In Italy , the Polizia Postale ( Postal and Communications Police ) , the agency task with investigating crimes on the internet , asked the small cybersecurity consulting startup Hacking Team to construct phone spyware capable of obtain around Skype ’s encryption , among other snooping feature , according to former Hacking Team employees with whom I have speak .
Across the world , other governments found different way to spy on Skype substance abuser . In 2008 , Citizen Lab , a digital rights research group at the University of Toronto , rule that Skypehad been modified to appropriate Chinese spiesto collect messages exchanged across the service . In China , Skype was manoeuvre by Tom - Skype , a joint speculation between a Chinese wireless operator and eBay , which owned Skype at the time .
eld later , underground files leaked by former U.S. government declarer Edward Snowden give away that Microsoft , which now owns Skype , had modified the app to allow the National Security Agency and other authoritiesto collect Call and messages , in effect vote down the app ’s vaunted encryption .
This week , Microsoft announced that it will shut down Skype on May 5 . At this pointedness , Skype is a fringe app . In 2023 , Microsoft said it still had 36 million users , a far yell from its summit of 300 million users .
While Skype is largely a relic of past times and will soon terminate operate , Skype ’s legacy live on in the engineering that assure the communication of all of the earthly concern ’s most pop chat apps . And the worldly concern is a safe , freer station , thanks to Skype ’s original developers ’ groundbreaking melodic theme about privateness .
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