Skype Blocks German Terrorist Investigation

Germany is that kind of country which aims to promote some laws that would allow the authorities to install some pieces of software on users' computers in order to monitor their activity and find incriminatory evidence for legal disputes. But it seems like some applications installed on the systems might block them from reaching their goal as the German experts are unable to bypass their protection. Skype is one of those because the officials didn't manage to find a way to trick its encryption and record the conversations conducted through the VoIP client. Joerg Ziercke, president of Germany's Federal Police Office, said that it's pretty difficult to bypass Skype's encryption features to record the conversations made by some suspects or terrorists over the web.

"The encryption with Skype telephone software ... creates grave difficulties for us," Joerg Ziercke said according to Reuters. "We can't decipher it. That's why we're talking about source telecommunication surveillance -- that is, getting to the source before encryption or after it's been decrypted."

Sure, you might think that working with the Skype developer would be a smart way to find a solution for recording the conversation and keep the other users secure. But it isn't and the authorities know it as no software company would be interested in such a thing as its image can be easily damaged which often result in client loss.

"There are no discussions with Skype. I don't think that would help. I don't think that any provider would go for that," the German police official continued, the same source reported.

A few days ago, the German authorities tried to promote a law that will permit them to install some special utilities on suspects' computers that could help them find new incriminatory evidence. Although the law was not voted yet, some German departments are already looking for two security experts to build the software and install them on the targeted systems once the law is approved.

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