What does Windows have to do with anything?

The NSA is hoovering up packets at AT&T switching stations and now they want to listen to some encrypted phone calls.

Here's my interpretation of the offer. They have no intention of paying for an attack. If somebody attempts to claim the reward they will say "Oh, no thanks, we don't really want your attack" and then rediscover the attack themselves.

The overwhelming majority of "persons of interest" using Skype are on Windows, but substitute any other OS and the equation is no different: you're suggesting that the NSA would pay billions of dollars for a break in a protocol that runs exclusively on endpoints that the NSA can get a shell on at will.

The problem with skype isn't listening in on the calls, it's finding the links between people.

The P2P nature of Skype makes it difficult to identify links of bad guys (or innocent guys that happen to be in the wrong place wrong time).

Listening in on calls isn't that useful - unless you know that "the goose flies south for winter" means we attack at dawn.

As a practitioner I would be shocked (shocked!) if there wasn't a way within the Skype protocol to pop a shell on anyone running a Skype-branded Skype client.

I run Linux and use Skype, it's available for Mac's too... why the assumption that Windows is the main player?

http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/choose/?cm_sp=sv|d...

But I like brl's interpretation...

I use it on linux too and know way too many people who use it on Macs. I agree, its not quite right to limit it to Windows.

Not billions, but I could certainly imagine them paying millions if someone provided them with a passive break.

Much easier to tap a few fibre optic cables (either with or without the cooperation of telcos) than to crack individual systems -- and the risk of discovery is much less, too.

Sure. But that's not what the report said. People have all sorts of crazy stories about what the NSA did or didn't say. I think this one is BS.

What kind of communication app worth cracking would not run primarily on Windows machines? That's practically a prerequisite to widespread use.