Skype security flaw leaves user locations vulnerable
Users of the world’s most popular Internet telephony service may be inadvertently putting themselves at risk of having their physical location and other personal details stolen, experts warn.
Tracking the Skype activities of 20 volunteers and a random sample of 10,000 other users over two weeks, researchers at New York University’s Polytechnic Institute found hackers could not only discover where each user placed each call, but also their peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing activity. Their findings were published last month and reported by security software provider Symantec Corp. on Thursday.
“A hacker anywhere in the world could easily track the whereabouts and file-sharing habits of a Skype user – from private citizens to celebrities and politicians – and use the information for purposes of stalking, blackmail or fraud,” Keith Ross, professor of computer science at NYU-Poly, warns in a news release.
