Skype Can Send Secret and Encrypted Messages

Researchers working for the Institute of Telecommunications in Warsaw, Poland have found a way to send secret and encrypted messages using Microsoft’s utterly popular VoIP app Skype.

A New Scientist report shows that researchers have discovered that Skype continues to send data even when the connected users make pauses between spoken words.

A standard Skype call transmits two different types of data: 130-bit data packets when one of the users is speaking and 70-bit data packets when no one is talking.

The researchers have developed a technology called SkypeHide that would allow someone to use the 70-bit data to transmit encrypted messages, with the secret information available only to those using the same system.

SkypeHide supports regular text messages, voice and video data at a rate of 1 KB per second though an active Skype call.

Of course, the system isn’t yet publicly available, but the researches will show it in action in Montpellier, France in June.