As Skype Shuts Down, Its Legacy Lives On in End-to-End Encryption

In the early evening of March 5, 2012, in Cairo, Egyptian revolutionaries stormed the headquarters of the State Security Investigations (SSI) service, a building known as "the capital of hell" due to its reputation for ruthless torture and surveillance. Inside, protesters found documents, torture devices, hard drives, CDs, and DVDs — all detailing nightmarish torture and widespread surveillance. Among the documents, protesters discovered a memorandum written in Arabic by SSI officers about a mysterious software called FinFisher, made by the British-German company Gamma International.

The memorandum reported that FinFisher was a high-level hacking system with several capabilities, including the ability to access email inboxes and upload "spy files" on the target's device. It also tracked communications, gained complete control over devices, and documented its success in hacking people's accounts on Skype network, which was touted as the most secure method of communication at the time.

Skype was launched in 2003 and quickly became the most popular internet phone-calling app in the world. Its promise of unprecedented privacy, with calls "highly secure with end-to-end encryption," made it a favorite among users. However, this encryption was not foolproof, as Egyptian spies needed to hack directly into people's computers using FinFisher to listen in on their targets' Skype calls.

"Skype calls have excellent sound quality and are highly secure with end-to-end encryption," the company's homepage read in 2004. This encryption was revolutionary at the time, built upon the work of legendary cryptographer Phil Zimmermann who created Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) software that allowed people to make files or emails private with end-to-end encryption.

Now, more than 20 years later, end-to-end encryption is baked into apps used by billions of people worldwide. Apple's iMessage and FaceTime, Facebook Messenger, Signal, and WhatsApp, among others, offer this level of security by default. However, Skype was the first to introduce it in 2003, sparking anger among law enforcement agencies worldwide.

In Italy, the Polizia Postale asked a cybersecurity consulting startup, Hacking Team, to build phone spyware capable of getting around Skype's encryption. Across the world, governments found other ways to spy on Skype users. In 2008, Citizen Lab discovered that Skype had been modified to allow Chinese spies to collect messages exchanged across the service.

Years later, secret files leaked by former U.S. government contractor Edward Snowden revealed that Microsoft, which now owns Skype, had modified the app to allow the National Security Agency and other authorities to collect calls and messages, effectively defeating the app's vaunted encryption.

This week, Microsoft announced that it will shut down Skype on May 5. With only 36 million users remaining, a far cry from its peak of 300 million users in 2023, Skype is now largely a relic of the past.

However, Skype's legacy lives on in the technology that secures the communications of all popular chat apps. The world is a safer and freer place thanks to Skype's original developers' groundbreaking ideas about privacy.

The Future of End-to-End Encryption

As Skype shuts down, its impact on end-to-end encryption will be felt for years to come. With many apps built upon Skype's pioneering work in this area, the world is now a more secure place due to Skype's innovative ideas.

A Legacy of Innovation

Skype may be gone, but its legacy will continue to inspire and protect users' communications for generations to come. As we move forward, it's essential to build upon this foundation of end-to-end encryption, ensuring that future generations can trust their online interactions.