A design flaw in Skype sets the IP addresses of users to anyone with an individual username and a hacker tool "skype resolver".
This IP address privacy vulnerability allows hackers to track and harass geographically Skype users, and opens the door to a variety of other security issues such as Denial of Service (DoS).
access Skype was a contributing factor in many democratic movements in recent years, allowing journalists and activists to be anonymous and get round a battery of physical checks and wiretaps on traditional phones. Now this freedom - and their IP addresses - is open to attack. The IP address is a numerical code assigned to each device on the Internet that allows it to send and receive data. The researchers were able to track people within 700 meters by analyzing their IP addresses.
Your IP address is almost common knowledge
Although the IP address of the Skype vulnerability has been known for several years, the ability of hackers to abuse has increased dramatically thanks to "skype resolvers," wrote Brian Krebs on his blog KrebsOnSecurity award recently. Skype resolvers are in simple online tools that take the Skype username and answer back in minutes with the latest IP address and country of the original user.
Resolver tools are often paired with "booters" attack moneymaking tool online tools that can be hired to launch denial of service attacks on targeted websites. These attacks are the recent attacks on JP Morgan Stanley to small-scale attacks in KrebsOnSecurity and Ars Technica offline. As Krebs noted, resolvers operate independently of privacy settings users have selected the Skype program control panel.
Use the privacy option
Most of us are not concerned about getting knocked on the internet with a DoS attack. But we like to control who can see where we are and what we do on the Internet. And when it comes to this vulnerability Skype, users like me have a choice: We can use a normal computer connection - either cable broadband or WiFi - and reveal our IP Address. Or we can use a free service like VPN Hotspot Shield VPN for hiding our IP address and Skype solvers location.
I tested a Skype Resolver tool and found it correctly identified my IP address and geographic location. But after turning on my Hotspot Shield VPN client, the resolver-based show on the temporary IP address given to me by Hotspot Shield-I am somewhere in San Jose, California ... about half a globe my physical location in Central Europe.
Although we can not correct this vulnerability Skype, we can choose which IP address to reveal. My choice is clear.
Lyle Frink on Google+
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