Skype Call Traced

[Matej Kovacic]

Skype Call Traced

Kobi Alexander fled the United States ten days ago. He was tracked down
in Sri Lanka via a Skype call:

    According to the report, Alexander was located after making a
one-minute call via the online telephone Skype service. The call, made
from the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, alerted intelligence agencies to
his presence in the country.

Ars Technica explains:

    The fugitive former CEO may have been convinced that using Skype
made him safe from tracking, but he -- and everyone else that believes
VoIP is inherently more secure than a landline -- was wrong. Tracking
anonymous peer-to-peer VoIP traffic over the Internet is possible (PDF).
In fact, it can be done even if the parties have taken some steps to
disguise the traffic.

Let this be a warning to all of you who thought Skype was anonymous.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/skype_call_trac.html

http://ise.gmu.edu/~xwangc/Publications/CCS05-VoIPTracking.pdf