Live data from Hacker News

Signal partners with Microsoft to bring end-to-end encryption to Skype

signal.org

21–30 of 350 posts

Re: Signal partners with Microsoft to bring end-to-end encryption to Skype

#22

I guess I'll be downvoted to hell, but.... This absolutely stinks. Signal is most likely blessed by the NSA. This is a ruse to get people comfortable with using Skype again for confidential conversations. Ever since Microsoft bought Skype and completely gutted it, it's been an open secret that they only did so to fulfill an $8B RFP by the NSA to break Skype's encryption. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8106721 h…

Your first "source" claims that Signal was funded by a part of the US government that is very much not the NSA - which is well-known and well-publicized. Your second "source" is about Skype, not Signal (and the only meaningful mention of the NSA is a rumor that they're willing to fund third parties who can effectively break the encryption, not that they're willing to fund MS to remove it, anyway).

The most effective thing the NSA could do to weaken Signal is fund people to spread FUD about it on message boards and drive people to inferior solutions. I'm not saying they're doing that, but it would be way more effective than providing funding to an open, peer-reviewed protocol and implementation.

Re: Signal partners with Microsoft to bring end-to-end encryption to Skype

#23

I guess I'll be downvoted to hell, but.... This absolutely stinks. Signal is most likely blessed by the NSA. This is a ruse to get people comfortable with using Skype again for confidential conversations. Ever since Microsoft bought Skype and completely gutted it, it's been an open secret that they only did so to fulfill an $8B RFP by the NSA to break Skype's encryption. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8106721 h…

Maybe they have an 'understanding' about the implementation of the cryptography as they do with WhatsApp, meaning the program doesn't notify you when your opposite's keys change, leaving unscrupulous users (most) susceptible to MitM attacks, which could be used by law enforcement or three-letter-agencies. Plus, Skype probably still makes extensive use of meta-data, Signal allege that they don't, but we can't really assess what's actually running on their servers, despite the use of the AGPL.

Re: Signal partners with Microsoft to bring end-to-end encryption to Skype

#24
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But... Skype does remember conversation history?

Not the version I use for work. If you close the conversation, the history is gone, unless you fancy digging it up in Outlook, which of course you don't, because the way it is stored there is terrible.

That's a setting. Your IT team may have chosen it.

Re: Signal partners with Microsoft to bring end-to-end encryption to Skype

#25
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But... Skype does remember conversation history?

Not the version I use for work. If you close the conversation, the history is gone, unless you fancy digging it up in Outlook, which of course you don't, because the way it is stored there is terrible.

Just a guess, but you may be using Skype for Business, which is a completely different product with just a similarity in name.

Re: Signal partners with Microsoft to bring end-to-end encryption to Skype

#26
post #14

While on topic of Skype: My God the latest Skype design update is abysmal, whoever come up with that horrible mess should be fired and never touch any design or management role at all. And it’s not only design but the ux is horrible too, when you switch between conversation - it does not focus on the chat box field so you can start typing right away, instead you have to click it first. This is a basic stuff for a cha…

Since the update, I have no idea how to find people. I even type in their username on their and they're not found. I don't know how it works anymore.

Re: Signal partners with Microsoft to bring end-to-end encryption to Skype

#27
post #19

I guess I'll be downvoted to hell, but.... This absolutely stinks. Signal is most likely blessed by the NSA. This is a ruse to get people comfortable with using Skype again for confidential conversations. Ever since Microsoft bought Skype and completely gutted it, it's been an open secret that they only did so to fulfill an $8B RFP by the NSA to break Skype's encryption. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8106721 h…

2/4 of the links in your sources don't work. I don't see any evidence that the OTF is a front for the NSA, or that you think somebody with the capability to make that in a year would sell their soul for $455,000.

The OTF is specifically a (non-secret) front for Radio Free Asia, whose mission is to work in other countries against their NSA equivalents. The best thing the OTF can do is to fund actually honestly secure crypto, because if there's a hidden weakness the NSA can use, there's too much of a risk that one of the countries Radio Free Asia is trying to work against is going to find it.

(Yes, technically, a keyed "backdoor" would work and allow the NSA alone to hold the corresponding private key, but also Signal's client code is public so there isn't really a place to put one of those without anyone noticing.)

Re: Signal partners with Microsoft to bring end-to-end encryption to Skype

#28
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But... Skype does remember conversation history?

Not the version I use for work. If you close the conversation, the history is gone, unless you fancy digging it up in Outlook, which of course you don't, because the way it is stored there is terrible.

There's about 50% chance Outlook failed to store it too. Skype for business is really failing at the basics.

Re: Signal partners with Microsoft to bring end-to-end encryption to Skype

#29

I guess I'll be downvoted to hell, but.... This absolutely stinks. Signal is most likely blessed by the NSA. This is a ruse to get people comfortable with using Skype again for confidential conversations. Ever since Microsoft bought Skype and completely gutted it, it's been an open secret that they only did so to fulfill an $8B RFP by the NSA to break Skype's encryption. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8106721 h…

You don't think, maybe, Radio Free Asia (funding from the Broadcasting Board of Governors) is providing funding to Signal so Asians (like the Chinese) have a surveillance free communication option? The US government is bigger than the NSA.

Re: Signal partners with Microsoft to bring end-to-end encryption to Skype

#30
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what else absolutely stinks? Skype in general. I cannot fathom why something so simple as remembering conversation history is beyond their engineers.

But... Skype does remember conversation history?

Hm, I seem to also have issues with Skype history. I can't find a way in the new UI to go back more than ~6 months of conversation history.

I lost an semi-important document that was shared with me over skype because of that.

Post reply on HN