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Secret Conversations added to Skype

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The updated version of Skype now includes end-to-end encryption of personal conversations and video calls. The history of a private chat can be viewed on the device used for negotiations or correspondence.

The new secret Skype chats can be used on both desktop platforms (Linux, Windows, macOS) and on Android and iOS mobile systems.

Secret conversations

The special functionality of end-to-end (aka end-to-end) encryption is that the subscribers themselves have access to its keys. As a result, unauthorized persons do not gain access to other people's conversations and messages, and it will also not be possible to intercept the content of the conversation in advance.

Secret encryption in the updated Skype is carried out using the Signal protocol, created by the non-profit company Open Whisper Systems. The protocol was developed for the open source platform of the same name. According to a number of experts, the Signal platform is one of the most protected from intrusion of services. For example, former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden also rated the Signal messenger in a positive way.

To start conversations to which special encryption is applied, the user should select the "start a private conversation" tool in the interlocutor's personal profile. Then the selected subscriber receives a personal invitation.

After the subscriber answers with consent to the invitation, all subsequent messages between the participants in the encrypted conversation will be available only to himself. At the same time, the history of correspondence will not be saved in the Skype cloud storage, where the correspondence of simple chats goes by default. At the same time, there are small restrictions for secret conversations: the interlocutor cannot participate in more than one private conversation at the same time, and also the entire saved communication history will be available only on the mobile or stationary device from which it was conducted.

About encrypted early Skype chats

As representatives of Skype say in their official blog, even earlier all types of user activity (voice recordings, videos, texts) were also encrypted, except for voice calls to home phones and mobile phones. In this case, Skype is technically incapable of performing encryption on a segment of the telephone line. As a result, during a conference call, where there is one participant with a mobile device, the conversation cannot be protected from unauthorized access.

Skype testing of secret encryption, which provides a new level of security for private conversations, began in early 2018. By that time, a number of platforms were already using similar tools - Apple iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Whatsapp, and others.

The Topic of Article: Secret Conversations added to Skype.
Author: Jake Pinkman


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