Skype can be intercepted by intelligence agencies

Unverified reports in Russian media claim that conversations over Skype can be eavesdropped by intelligence agencies which can also determine the location of users.

First reported in the Russian-language Vedomosti newspaper last week, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has had the ability to intercept Skype calls for "a couple of years" and often do so without a court warrant. As a result, some Russian companies are banning staff from using Skype out of concern that their communications are secretly listened to.

Since Skype voice and video calls as well as instant messages are routed directly between users in a peer-to-peer fashion without a central server, and encoded locally according to the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard developed by the United States government, it's been assumed that eavesdropping on communications would be impossible in practice.