Taliban fighters targeting British troops in Afghanistan are
using the latest ‘internet phones’ to evade detection by MI6,
security sources said last night.
Skype, a popular piece of consumer software that allows free calls
to be made over the web, has been adopted by insurgents to
communicate with cells strung out across the country.
Unlike traditional mobile calls, which can be monitored by RAF
Nimrod spy planes, Skype calls – the commercial application of a
technology called Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) – are heavily
encrypted.
Web of deceit: Taliban internet calls are hard to
monitor
Voice calls are broken into millions of pieces of data before being
sent down the line and reassembled by the other caller’s
computer.
The British and American governments are investing considerable
resources to crack the codes, and in the UK the Government is
introducing legislation to force internet service providers to log
all web activity by subscribers, which could then be turned over to
the security services on demand.
The disclosure comes as the 8,000 British troops in Afghanistan are
facing attacks almost daily from an increasingly well co-ordinated
Taliban.
‘The trouble with this technology is that it is easily available
but devilishly hard to crack,’ the source said. ‘The technology can
now be accessed on mobile internet devices and the country’s mobile
phone network is expanding rapidly.’
Skype was created in 2003 and three years ago was bought by eBay
for £1.4billion. It has 300million accounts and at any one time,
more than 12million people are using the service.
Sir David Pepper, the head of GCHQ, the British Government’s
top-secret listening post, has told MPs that internet calls are
‘seriously undermining’ his organisation’s ability to intercept
communications.
Skype said last night it did not want to comment.
Source: Daily Mail UK, September 13, 2008