Up until now more or less experienced hackers were able to find the IP address used by a Skype user only by knowing the account name. Hackers were able to attack their victims after knowing the IP addresses of them.
This bug was first discovered in 2012. The interesting idea is that Skype only fixed this programming error only this month, four years later.
Many DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks occured because of this bug. This practice was common used by gamers. In order to win the games they were playing, some gamers kicked their opponents from the game by using DDoS attacks. Moreover, if the Skype users were not well protected by antivirus programs or anti malware software, the atackers were able to steal programs dirrectly from their victims’s computers.
In 2012, Microsoft announced that it was impossible to find the IP address of a customer based on it’s public data. It seems that only now the statement becomes true.
This is a good example for “now it’s better than never”. Lots of internet users are using skype. Privacy is a big word in 2016. We “salute” Skype’s bug fixing and we hope that this communication software remains as secure as possible.
If you’re a hacker and you know other Skype bugs or exploits, feel free to post a comment to this post.
