Skype is the undisputed leader in VoIP services both in quality and security. For years, hackers had been working hard to crack the strong Encryption Skype Protocol uses to Obfuscate its voice packets.

Encryption was so good that almost no one has been able to reverse engineer it out of the numerous Skype binaries.

The developer claims that most of hard things have already been done for 1.x/3.x/4.x versions of skype arithmetic voice compression. The source code is now available along with the binaries. This is a working code for “send message to skype”. However, it is based on old skype 1.4 version protocol, which no longer compatible with the server.

Skype Downloads:
skype_part1_binaries.zip
skype_part2_ida.zip
skype_part3_source.zip

If you look carefully at the source code, you will observe that it uses strong AES and RSA encryption with public key infrastructure. You can also download it via torrent.

Checkout the discussions at hackernews.

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Encryption was so good that almost no one has been able to reverse engineer it out of the numerous Skype binaries. Those who claimed to have actually get through, failed to release it publicly. It was all shadowed until someone released the complete Obfuscation algorithm to the web in Plain C code.

The complete source code is available at http://cryptolib.com/ciphers/skype . On carefully analyzing the code, one can come to the conclusion that the greatest secret of Skype communication protocol, is in obfuscated Skype RC4 key expansion algorithm.

The leak actually happened a couple of months ago. Within few weeks of the leak, the code was being used by hackers & spammers.  A better thing was to make the algorithm available to IT security Gurus as publication will help the IT security community help secure Skype better.

There is plenty of good cryptography in Skype. Most of it is implemented properly too. There are seven types of communication encryption in Skype: its servers use AES-256, the supernodes and clients use three types of RC4 encryption – the old TCP RC4, the old UDP RC4 and the new DH-384 based TCP RC4, while the clients also use AES-256 on top of RC4.

I tried to analyze the code, trust me its really complicated, really rocket science of Cryptography.

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Skype 5.0 brings a new cleaner, redesigned interface with a large number of new features everyone had been waiting for. The deal with Facebook now makes sense with the new integration.

Some of the key features:

• Revamped UI
• Automatic call recovery, reconnects dropped calls (due to network failures, etc)
• Facebook integration,
• Group video chat – See all of your friends at once.

Here’s a video that walks us through all these features:

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With the new app, you can make free Skype-to-Skype calls, and send and receive IMs for free, one-to-one or with a group. You can also call phones at the same prices as before, both over WiFi or 3G.

You can download Skype from the Android Market, or from skype.com/m

Works with Android OS 2.1 or later. however at this app assures to work well on HTC, motorola phones. Samsung Galaxy S is not supported at the moment. Also, it won’t be available in China and Japan Marketplace, but the fixes are coming soon.

Originally, Skype had plans to launch the app with video support, but they’ve delayed it until Google Androids next OS release: GingerBread.

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IP Video conference can be easily hacked using a freeware tool that allows attackers to monitor calls in real-time and record Video files.

The original exploit was first demonstrated more than a year ago, but sadly, most corporate networks are still vulnerable to it, says Jason Ostrom, director of VIPER Lab at VoIP vendor Sipera, where he performs penetration tests on clients’ business VoIP networks.

He says he sees only 5% of these networks are properly configured to block this attack, which can yield audio and video files of entire conversations. “I almost never see encryption turned on,” he says.

Only about one in 20 organizations secures its IP video with encryption or other measures, according to Sipera’s research, so IP video is ripe for attack. Ostrom and fellow researcher Arjun Sambamoorthy used a pair of homegrown open-source tools to perform the hacks at Defcon, which performs video eavesdropping, and VideoJak, which intercepts and replays video.

However, the attacker needs physical access to the IP network to execute these hacks, the researchers say, as well as access to a VLAN port on which the video application resides.

Ostrom demonstrated the attack at the Forrester Security Forum in Boston last week using a Cisco switch, two Polycom videophone and a laptop armed with a hacking tool called UCSniff that he pulled together from open source tools.

How VoIP, IP video hack works

Hacker needs to get access to a VoIP phone jack to which he plugs a laptop with the hacking tool- UCSniff. Using address-resolution protocol (ARP) spoofing, the device gathers the corporate VoIP directory, giving the hacker the ability to keep an eye on any phone and to intercept its calls. There’s a tool within UCSniff called ACE that simplifies capturing the corporate directory.

Once intercepted, the audio and video from the targeted call flow through the laptop, where it can be viewed as it streams by and also where it is recorded in separate files, one for each end of the conversation, Ostrom says.

They used UCSniff to record a ‘safe’ video stream, then converted it to an AVI file. Then we used the VideoJak tool that also supports man-in-the-middle,” he says. VideoJak intercepts the video stream, and replaces it with a malicious or phony video payload.

So, for instance, a bad guy could replace a surveillance feed of his breaking into the CEO’s office with a routine clip trained on the office door, with no sign of the break-in.

How to Prevent VoIP, Video Conference Hacking?

The strongest answer — apply Encryption for both signaling and media. The problem isn’t with the networking or VoIP and video gear itself, but rather with how they are configured in the network.

The scary thing is, 70% of the networks tested by pen-testers are vulnerable to toll fraud attacks that use the corporate network as a proxy for make long distance calls.

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The new Fring client for Android has all the usual VoIP and messaging functions: aggregating identities from Skype, GTalk and SIP-based telephony services, as well as ICQ, AIM and, but new thing is all about video-calling goodness with their iPhone and Symbian contacts, out of the box.

Fring app will automatically check the available hardware processing power with video calling only appearing if it’s actually possible. But that should include the Nexus One, Motorola Droid and HTC Desire, HTC Incredible, EVO, XPERIA or anything equivalent.

The best part is that it works with Skype, so that means that you should see (and be seen by) any Skype user, assuming you’ve found a Wi-Fi or decent 3G connection that can do atleast 512kbps, reliably.

Fring is getting the video chat to more platforms. Fring already has one way video calling on iPhone which can be hacked for full 2-way calling moment iPhone 4g/HD arrives.

Fring, as a company, has invested a lot in mobile communications but is still searching for a revenue model since its apps are free.

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Google has bought the company at $68.2 million, not a bad deal for the kind of VOIP innovation the Global IP solutions had been holding.

Apart from running Real-Time Video conferencing to Android,  it could also create a Skype-competitor by adding video capabilities to Google Voice, just like GTalk but would work with desktops and mobiles, alike. This service can somehow be coupled with Gizmo5 acquisition to enable powerful VoIP and video conferencing across all kinds of devices (IP phones, IMs, Cellphones). To extend it, Google could offer the developers the API to leverage the potential to create next level of applications that would add communications to Webapps, and even to corporate Google Apps.

Yesterday, Google launched a new version of Google’s Feed API, which will push updates directly to a user’s browser. No more refreshing pages to see when new content is available – the real-time web comes to you live, nearly instantly as soon as it’s published. Same is the fate of Video conferencing.

An API from Google incorporating this real-time video communication, pushing content in the same way as it will with its Feed API, would further enable endless possibilities.

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A year back, Skype became HD capable (720p) and now combined with Group video chat, I see some great opportunities.

The new feature — which is still in beta — will allow groups of up to five friends to chat with each other via video.

For group video conferencing to work, all users must download and install the latest version of the Skype client. Unfortunately, group video chat is only available on Windows users right now, but Skype says a Mac version is in the works and will be ready for download later this year.

While the feature is still in beta, group video conferencing is free, but Skype expects to release it as one of a number of new premium features later this year to compete wit Cisco and other Video conferencing providers. The pricing hasn’t been decided, but,  Skype voice calling and two-way video chat will always remain free for all users.

One existing competition is from Paltalk, which offers up to 10 users video chat that too in a standard web browser using Flash. Will Skype move to webapp? Not yet.

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Let’s discuss both acquisitions in detail.

AdMob Acquisition

This is Google’s 3rd largest acquisition ever. Google announced it’s buying AdMob, a provider of mobile ad technologies, for $750 million in stock. This could give the relatively small market for ads on mobile devices a BIG PUSH.

With the acquisition Google gets better grip on Mobile industry with Android software already on increasing popularity such as with the Motorola’s Droid.

“Google could have built this itself, but this gives them a head start,” says mobile analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence. “It will thrust Google into the forefront of mobile display ads.”

In particular, AdMob provides Google with the ability to serve display ads, the pictorial banners that are the chief revenue source for most Web sites, to cell phones and other mobile devices. Google last June introduced AdSense for Mobile in a bid to provide Web sites with display ads akin to its multibillion-dollar AdSense program for conventional Web sites.

Google said

“We got a chance to get an unbelievable engineering team,” Vic Gundotra, a Google vice president of engineering, said in an interview. Susan Wojcicki, Google’s vice president of product management, added that AdMob founder Omar Hamoui is “really a visionary in this space.”

Gizmo5 Acquisition

Last month Skype had it’s eyes on Gizmo5, a VOIP Startup. Gizmo5′s SIP infrastructure could theoretically replace Skype’s proprietary P2P back end, but the deal broke in the dark.

Google Voice has long threatened other VOIP providers – Google Voice Killing Skype made sense, but there’s something to compete:  Ribbit Mobile.

Ribbit Mobile is a cloud-based VoIP telephony service that brings together web-based calling, smart call routing and voicemail transcriptions – Just like Google Voice does.

Just like Google Voice, Ribbit gives users a new phone number or they can use call forwarding to transfer calls from their mobile phones to Ribbit’s platform.

Ribbit Mobile has few unique features [that Google doesn't offer], like the ability to ring different phones simultaneously and to make calls from within the browser.

Today, Vivox Voice Facebook app has launched in beta.

For setting it up, you have to login to Facebook and navigate to the link Vivox Voice.  You`ll be prompted to install Vivox Voice Facebook app, you must install this plugin to integrate voice chat. Once you’ve done that, voice chat is activated. You can then invite friends that have the app to you voice chat. All you have to do is select the friends, and chat window with links opens up, inviting is done with  bit.ly link via Fb Chat. This links points to your Voice Chat Channel. It’s similar to a conference in Yahoo! Chat

The good thing about Vivox is, it let’s your friends Dial-in to your channel without having access to PC by dialing to a U.S. local number.

Yea, it’s bit messy at the moment since it’s not integrated to FbChat. The app doesn’t work seamlessly. But, till Facebook launches their own solution, it’s a good alternative. It’s bit buggy since it is in beta, so expect the unexpected.

Looking for Video Chat? What for a while, it’s coming.

The buyers will pay eBay $1.9 billion in cash, which includes a loan from eBay of $125 million, for 65 percent of the company. EBay will retain 35 percent equity investment in Skype, which is on track to take in more than $600 million in revenue this year.

The deal values Skype at $2.75 billion, higher than many analysts had expected for the calling service. Many analysts thought eBay grossly overpaid when it acquired Skype in 2005 for $2.1 billion.
This deal comes during a very public battle between eBay and the founders of Skype, who are threatening to cut off one of the key peer-to-peer technologies that power and have expressed interest in rebuying their company. It’s even possible they are also part of the sale – we just don’t know yet.

In addition, the buyer group also includes Andreessen Horowitz, a new venture capital firm headed by the former Netscape co-founder, Marc Andreessen; Index Ventures, a London-based venture capital firm that was an early investor in Skype; and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

“This is a great deal, unlocking both immediate and long-term value for eBay and tremendous potential for Skype,” John J. Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive, said in a statement. “We’ve acted decisively on a deal that delivers a high valuation, gives us significant cash up front and lets us retain a meaningful minority stake with talented partners.”

“Skype is a strong stand-alone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments businesses,” Mr. Donahoe added. “As a separate company, we believe that Skype will have the focus required to compete effectively in online voice and video communications and accelerate its growth momentum.”

History & Facts

eBay acquired Skype in 2005 in a deal that has come to be viewed as one of the most awkward technology pairings of the decade. Meg Whitman (CEO then) led the charge to acquire Skype for $2.1 billion plus bonus incentives for Skype’s shareholders that later increased the price past $3 billion.

Ms. Whitman paid a hefty premium to outbid Google, which she viewed at the time as invading eBay’s core businesses of e-commerce and payments. But Google’s forays into those areas, like the Google Checkout service, have met with less success than once forecast.

As part of the deal, Ms. Whitman also allowed Skype’s founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, to maintain ownership of the core peer-to-peer technology behind the Skype service. The founders invested that ownership into a separate company, called Joltid, which is now battling eBay in a British court over rights to make changes to that technology.

At the time, Ms. Whitman said the deal with worth it because Skype’s calling capabilities could be woven into the eBay marketplace, allowing buyers and sellers to facilitate their purchases. But those synergies never materialized and in 2007, eBay wrote down $1.4 million of the acquisition.

Ms. Whitman, who left eBay last year, is now a Republican candidate for the governor of California.

“The purchase was a serious mistake by Meg Whitman. It was an attempt to buy growth which investors saw through instantly,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. But, Mr. Lindsay said, the new deal surpassed his expectations for what Skype could generate in the initial public offering that eBay had once planned for 2010. “I think investors will be really happy with this.”

Although eBay has said it was planning an initial public offering for the Skype division in 2010, it has been talking to various companies and investment groups interested in buying the service. Mr. Zennstrom and Mr. Friis approached private equity firms earlier this year in hopes of making a bid for their old firm but did not meet eBay’s price.

Last month, eBay also negotiated with Google over buying Skype, according to a person briefed on those discussions. But Google ultimately walked away from a potential deal, fearing that continued litigation could leave it vulnerable to huge damages.

Google also worried that owning Skype might alienate wireless carriers, who offer their customers phones running Google’s Android software, the person said.

After falling precipitously the last few years, eBay’s shares have jumped 53 percent this year on strength in its PayPal payments business and positive changes in its core auctions business, including improved usability of the site and more “buy it now” auctions.

In early trading on Tuesday, eBay’s shares were up about 1.4 percent, to $2.45.

Watch the video -

Two-Fold concept ?

AT&T and Apple agreed that Apple would not take affirmative steps to enable an iPhone to use AT&T’s wireless service (including 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi) to make VoIP calls without first obtaining AT&T’s consent. If a third party enables an iPhone to make VoIP calls using AT&T’s wireless service, Apple would have no obligation to take action against that third party.

The parties’ concurrence on this provision was particularly important in light of the risks the parties assumed in bringing the iPhone to market.

The parties’ willingness and ability to assume the risk of their investments in the iPhone and of their pricing strategy were predicated, in significant part, on certain assumptions about the monthly service revenues that would be generated by iPhone users. In particular, both parties required assurances that the revenues from the AT&T voice plans
available to iPhone customers would not be reduced by enabling VoIP calling functionality on the iPhone. Thus, AT&T and Apple agreed that Apple would not take affirmative steps to enable an iPhone to use AT&T’s wireless service to make VoIP calls.

Without this arrangement, the prices consumers pay for the iPhone – particularly the broadband-enabled iPhone 3G – would likely have been higher than they are today.  During the course of the agreement, AT&T indicated to Apple that it does not object to Apple enabling VoIP applications for the iPhone that use Wi-Fi connectivity rather than AT&T’s 2G or 3G wireless data services. Although AT&T has no involvement in producing Apple’s iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK), which establishes the iPhone functionalities accessible to application developers, AT&T understands that the SDK enables application providers to develop VoIP applications that use the iPhone’s Wi-Fi capabilities and that such applications are currently available in the Apple App Store.

As noted above, AT&T regularly reviews its policies regarding features and capabilities available through the devices we offer in order to provide an attractive range of options for our customers. Consistent with this approach, we plan to take a fresh look at possibly authorizing VoIP capabilities on the iPhone for use on AT&T’s 3G network. AT&T will promptly update the Commission regarding any such change in its policies.

Run Android on PC in VMWare, Virtualbox

Till now we have seen A Tablet, Laptop running Android. Now it’s something that makes more sense. The devices we saw were running a version of Android almost indistinguishable from the publicly available build.

Today, Cloud Telecomputers has debuted a completely unique build of Android as a part of its Glass “telecomputer” platform. The company’s reference design has the Android environment running on a TI OMAP processor, and all telephony (VoIP and DSP, SIP Stack and Voice Codecs) being handled by a separate Audiocodes processor.

“Our approach allows us to focus on innovation, continually increasing the functionality of the Glass platform, while our partners concentrate their resources on branding, selling and tailoring applications for vertical markets.” said Ravin Suri, Cloud Telecomputers CTO.

With Android running the front end, Cloud Telecomputers is leaving the door open for third-party or in-house application development. Naturally, the platform comes with its own unique suite of apps (screen sharing, visual voicemail, voice to text and salesforce.com integration), but the value is in Android’s extensibility.

“By basing Glass on Google’s Android, we have provided users with access to the entire world of Android apps. Instead of asking users to conform to proprietary standards, we feel that the value of Glass is maximized by working with applications that are already available. New Android applications are being created every day, and Android’s user-supported development community is constantly growing,” the company said.

Furthermore, because the Glass platform offers an open API, licensees can actually develop and build their own apps and sell them to other Glass users, or go a step further and create their own desktop app store specifically for Glass.

Android is the future of Open Gadgets.

eBay filed a concern with SEC – A legal dispute between the Skype unit and Joltid - the organisation from which Skype was purchased.  If nothing is done, the entire Skype service could die.

Skype is the largest carrier of international telephony in the world (around 8% of global traffic). though Skype provides alot of free calls, but an increasing number of customers are using the paid Skype Out service – amounting to 8.4 billion minutes alone in 2008.

On page 15 of eBay’s quarterly SEC filing, it wrote the following -

(Don’t worry if you don’t understand this, I’ve explained it in the later section)

“Skype licenses peer-to-peer communication technology from Joltid Limited pursuant to a license agreement between the parties. The parties had been discussing a dispute over the license. … Following the filing of the claim, Joltid purported to terminate the license agreement between the parties. In particular, Joltid has alleged that Skype should not possess, use or modify certain software source code and that, by doing so, and by disclosing such code in certain U.S. patent cases pursuant to orders from U.S. courts, Skype has breached the license agreement.”

“Joltid has brought a counterclaim alleging that Skype has repudiated the license agreement, infringed Joltid’s copyright and misused confidential information… Joltid’s notice of breach and subsequent notice of termination are invalid, and that Joltid has certain indemnity obligations in relation to the U.S. patent proceedings. Trial is currently scheduled for June 2010.”

“Although Skype is confident of its legal position, as with any litigation, there is the possibility of an adverse result if the matter is not resolved through negotiation. Skype has begun to develop alternative software to that licensed through Joltid. However, such software development may not be successful, may result in loss of functionality or customers even if successful, and will in any event be expensive.  If Skype was to lose the right to use the Joltid software as the result of the litigation, and if alternative software was not available, Skype would be severely and adversely affected and the continued operation of Skype’s business as currently conducted would likely not be possible.”

Ok, I didn’t understand this, can you explain it in simple language?

To make it simple, Millions of internet users who use Skype could be forced to find other ways to makephone calls after parent company eBay said it did not own the underlying technology that powers the service, prompting fears of a shutdown.

Secondly, if the June 2010 case goes against eBay, a lot of people will have to return to the POTS to carry their calls or look for an alternative.

Rise of the Fallen – Other Providers

Right now, It’s the best time for other VOIP providers to showcase their features and outrun Skype. This is the best time when users will not mind switching to something that has a more reliable future.

Google Voice, which serves free internal calls within US, might take the best advantage of the scenario. Earlier we articulated how Google Voice can kill Skype, but now it’s much more easier than what it use to be then.

The Market is open, competition awaits a good opportunity from alternate providers.

Google Voice has finally captured it’s space on Mobile Platforms- Android and BlackBerry as a Native application (though the service still being an invitation-only).

Today,  Google plans to change that dynamic by allowing users to make Google Voice calls directly from their mobile phones. The company plans to release two mobile applications to make that possible.

The Google Voice app will allow users to use their mobile phones to access their inbox, place calls and send SMS messages with their Google Voice number, and make low-rate international calls.

When sending SMS messages in this manner, users don’t have to pay SMS charges levied by their mobile carriers because the SMS messages are sent by Google.

The experience of using Google Voice through one of these mobile apps is much more seamless, said Paquet.

The Google Voice apps will allow users to set whether all calls, only international calls, or no calls get routed through Google Voice.

The Android app will be available for free from the Android Market Place and the Blackberry app will be available for download from Google voice Web site.

Google launched Google Voice in March as a private beta test. Last month, it began sending invitations out to new users who had submitted a request to try the service. Paquet said that the reaction to the service has been pretty enthusiastic and that more people had requested invitations than anyone expected.

What About iPhone?

“With this new support, OnState allows you to turn Google Voice into a full-featured PBX or call center for a fraction of normal industry prices,” said Pat Kelly, CEO of OnState. “And while using Google Voice you can reap the benefits inherent to OnState, including multi-modal capabilities, business- and skills-based routing, seamless application integration, reporting and analytics, and our business presence capabilities.”

with OnState, now its possible for Businesses to add Google Voice, Google Talk, and even video chat to customer-facing communications, websites, and applications with OnState, and use their layer of abstraction of business presence to direct inbound inquiries to employees that can best serve the query based, independent of employee location or available in-use applications like PBX phones, Google Talk, Google Voice, PC phones, or mobile phones.

Currently, Google Voice is designed to facilitate personal communications, but is not well suited for customer-facing applications that allow a company to establish conversations based on business logic and job functions. Business presence layered on top of Google Voice and Google Talk helps companies extend the application to improve customer satisfaction and enhance worker productivity by connecting customers on the first attempt to the person who can best serve them.

In future, We expect google to play role in Enterprise sector by supporting ways to integrate into existing communications system that can suite Enterprises better. May be Google already ahs plans, first they want to test with the small sector, then they might get their hands into BIG market.

Benefits are clear, lower costs, more features at almost no new hardware.

Google Voice started from GrandCentral, will eventually conquer large part of US and the world. Google last week started sending out invitations for Google Voice, its new VoIP service built on technology it acquired  in 2007. Google Voice will be rolled out slowly, according to Google, but as of last Thursday, the service is now available to anyone who had requested to try the beta version.

What is Google Voice Hype All about?

Google Voice provides users with a universal phone number to cover all their phone communications – work, home, mobile – but more important are Google Voice’s bells and whistles, which include a transcription service for voicemails, the searchable cataloging of text messages and lots of different routing and forwarding options

Why it could pose a threat to Skype?

As a a consumer-grade VoIP service, Google Voice is Ready for a showdown with VOIP leader Skype. Here are the reasons why Skype, despite its enormous popularity, will need new things to compete:

1. Routing & forwarding Re-Defined: Google Voice allows users to customize the call routing. As per the need, Incoming call can be routed to certain phone number, ring certain tones and all this on any number of phones. Talking about customized preferences: The service offers the ability to direct your calls automatically to whichever phone (personal calls automatically to home phone, for example) as well as send calls automatically to voicemail.

2. A new definition of “Call Screening”: Call screening generally means throwing a glance at the incoming call number or caller ID screen and deciding whether to answer. According to Google however, when a call is made through Google Voice, the user gets to see the name plus four options: Answer it, answer it and record, send it to voicemail or send it to voicemail while listening to the caller leaving the voicemail, just like you did on landline answering machines . Google Voice can also apparently ask for a caller’s name if it isn’t in a user’s saved Google contacts and get that name to the user before he or she picks up the call.

3. On the Fly Switching: No matter which channel a call comes in through Google Voice, you can switch the phone midway through the call and pick up again without dropping it. Everything is done on the Fly without any disruptions.

4. Read your calls: When you send a Google Voice call straight to voicemail, you can listen live to what the caller is recording, and also answer the call part way through that recording. Not only that, but you can listen to your saved voicemails online (via Gmail-like interface) as well as forward them, and for a small fee, receive transcriptions of your voicemails as well. using internal voice recognition system.

5. The Google God: Skype has enjoyed a long period of dominance. When its to fight with Google, I haven’t seen any survivors so far (don’t argue about Android, its a success in its own stream).

Google has previous records to start with a base service, and eventually make it one of the most feature-full products in the market. Just like the Gmail, which once came just as an email client. And now its a boom with all integrated GTalk, plugins, Gadgets, Docs, Google Apps for corporates, to name a few. I foresee integration of all these with Google Voice. It will be fun to see how you could call Google Voice and check your meetings, prepare docs and send it out to all without opening the mail. commercial POTS will vanish, Possibilities are endless. And then someone will have privacy concerns over Google Voice just like they did over search, Gmail

Unified communications was once initiated by Cisco, Verizon, and now Google will Raise the bar.