Germany Looks into Skype Surveillance

This is what Wikileaks was created for, right? Leaked documents dated Sept. 4th, 2007 have been leaked by the German "Pirate Party" or "Piraten," showing that the German government is investigating ways to wiretap Skype, using Trojan Horses.

(For those unfamiliar with Skype, it basically allows calls and other messaging services over the Internet).

The document, (.PDF, German), shows that the German government was discussing the use of a "Skype Capture Unit," basically a form of malware to be installed on each "target PC," with the company DigiTask.

The SCU would intercept Skype voice and chat data, and then stream the captured data to a remote Skype Recording Server. The Recording Server then sends the conversations through to Skype and their intended destination. It can handle, according to DigiTask, up to 10 streams in parallel.

U.S. authorities have used malware like this in the past. Note: AV vendors have been evasive on whether or not they would detect and remove such malware.

This stuff isn't cheap:

• Skype Capture Software rental: €3,500 per month
• One-time installation and de-installation fee on-site €2,500 (well, yeah, someone has to sneak in and do it)
• SSL decryption: €2,500

Also, the minimum is a three month rental.

The document also says that delivery time would be 4 - 6 weeks after ordering. This could in fact mean the system is already in place. On the other hand, it's possible the system was scrapped and never implemented. Hard to say. But it does shed light on what governments worldwide are looking into for the future.