Skype - Tips to Stay Safe

Skype, the premier voice chatting and video chatting software on the internet that we all love. In this article I will be telling you how to stay safe on Skype whether it be from viruses or from random people adding you.

Odd Contact Requests: On an occasion you may get a random Skype friends request. If you do not know who this person is, I suggest blocking him/her immediately. If you ever add someone on Skype that you do not know they can call you and if you answer they could turn on video and show you whatever they want to.
Skype Worm: There has recently been a worm unleashed on Skype that when downloaded gets sent to everyone on your contacts list for them to download. You can avoid this worm if you never click on questionable links in Skype. This worm will also install a backdoor in your system. I would also recommend to never download files from Skype in general since there have been rumors of there being a way to spoof names on Skype.
Skype Names: The name that you give out to people to add you on Skype can be a dangerous thing if given to the wrong people, there are such things as Skype resolvers that can get your IP with just your Skype name often times this will lead to people DDoSing your internet connection. The obvious way to be protected from this is to never give out your Skype name to strangers or to random people on forums. Also I would highly recommend not putting any personal information in your Skype profile as this is public information.
Skype Updates: It is extremely important to always update your Skype client as soon as an update is released whether it be from a backdoor exploit to a crashing problem. About 6 months ago there was a Skype exploit that allowed people to crash other people's Skype clients by simply sending them a message with some Arabic characters, this exploit oddly had no effect on macs but only on windows users.
Anonymous Calling: On Skype you can buy very cheap unlimited calls to the US and Canada that do not show your phone number. This is very useful when trying to stay anonymous or just to prank call.

Conclusion

Skype is by far the best client to client voice chatting software out there right now, but you must take precautions much like everything on the internet to be safe.

منشورة في: Programming, Spyware and Viruses