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How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

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Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#11

Post by bad_user »

Last week Skype dropped 2/3 of my contacts list.

I contacted their chat support to tell them about it. The person on the other end was insisting that I might be using another Skype account where my other contacts are. Which of course I ain't since I'm not that stupid. He then suggested the stupid bullshit Tier 1 support usually does, like reinstalling Skype. I did as asked.

Then he asked me for remote control of my PC which I refused, because I have sensitive data on my laptop and I'm on a MacOS anyway. I then asked for my issue to be upgraded to a higher-level tier, because losing my contacts is unacceptable. Then he made an accusation that I haven't reinstalled Skype as asked and that I'm probably using two accounts, at which point I gave up.

Anyway, Skype sucks, it's been a week since I've lost most of my contacts which I've been collecting for about 7 years or so and their support is useless.

If you're relying on Skype for your business, stop doing that ;-)

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#13

Post by Angostura »

sebisebi wrote: post #3
illuminated wrote: post #2

Sadly, Skype is still used a lot. More than half of the emails I receive with a next step of communication proposal come suggesting Skype. The only way to beat it would be to have another communication solution which can be used as simple as Skype is (for any age, technical literacy, etc.).

I got a lot of friends to switch to whatsapp. The audio quality and stability is usually better.

And it requires uploading every contact on your device to their servers. Nope.

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#14

Post by grzm »

tomp wrote: post #10

> > We think that we gave enough information. You are piece of shit, live with it. I've no idea if this is real or not, but if it is, it's pretty damning for Microsoft. I hope the author goes to court and wins!

From the article: "Short recap:" As far as I can tell this recap is a summary of the original email exchange which is available from a link in the article.

http://telegra.ph/SRX1365288845ID---Account-blocked-by-mass-...

I haven't read it closely enough to confirm that the gist of each message corresponds, but I don't see any of the explicit, abusive language from Skype in the emails that shows up in the recap.

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#15

Post by azernik »

walrus01 wrote: post #7

I wonder how many other free services' accounts can be disabled by bombarding an automated abuse-reporting/blocking system with reports of "abuse" from a specified username. A lot more than just Skype, I bet. And many of these services have no method of contacting a human at "customer service" because of the sheer number of free accounts (tens of millions).

There have been a lot of instances of this happening to feminist or LGBT groups on Facebook and YouTube. These systems are fantastically abusable.

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#16

Post by alkonaut »

illuminated wrote: post #2

Sadly, Skype is still used a lot. More than half of the emails I receive with a next step of communication proposal come suggesting Skype. The only way to beat it would be to have another communication solution which can be used as simple as Skype is (for any age, technical literacy, etc.).

This. People talk about various alternatives, but I haven't seen one. The requirements are pretty simple

1) Chat and group chat (persistent)

2) Simple file transfer and image posting in chat

3) Good quality voice calls, video calls and group voice calls

4) Apps for android/iOS with shared contact lists

5) Single application for all of the above (to enable a single group set, switching between group chat and group call with one button)

6) No server setup

7) Free or freemium on all platforms (With all features 1-5 in the free tier)

Are there any good alternatives? Is there even an alternative?

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#17

Post by coob »

robert_foss wrote: post #8
illuminated wrote: post #2

Sadly, Skype is still used a lot. More than half of the emails I receive with a next step of communication proposal come suggesting Skype. The only way to beat it would be to have another communication solution which can be used as simple as Skype is (for any age, technical literacy, etc.).

http://appear.in/yourconferencename is rather convenient and should be usable by anyone with a browser.

appear.in regularly pegs my CPU at 100% :(

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#19

Post by walrus01 »

azernik wrote: post #15
walrus01 wrote: post #7

I wonder how many other free services' accounts can be disabled by bombarding an automated abuse-reporting/blocking system with reports of "abuse" from a specified username. A lot more than just Skype, I bet. And many of these services have no method of contacting a human at "customer service" because of the sheer number of free accounts (tens of millions).

There have been a lot of instances of this happening to feminist or LGBT groups on Facebook and YouTube. These systems are fantastically abusable.

If I were setting up an automated abuse-report-receiving system that could automatically disable accounts, I would run some sort of filter for "is the account reporting the abuse itself a newly created account, and/or one with suspiciously low and non-human looking usage patterns?".

But on the other side, malicious actors can solve that problem by having clickfarm workers in bangladesh create 30 fake facebook accounts, post random drivel on them for a week to make them look like they're in use, and then use those to report abuse.

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#20

Post by waldfee »

alkonaut wrote: post #16
illuminated wrote: post #2

Sadly, Skype is still used a lot. More than half of the emails I receive with a next step of communication proposal come suggesting Skype. The only way to beat it would be to have another communication solution which can be used as simple as Skype is (for any age, technical literacy, etc.).

This. People talk about various alternatives, but I haven't seen one. The requirements are pretty simple 1) Chat and group chat (persistent) 2) Simple file transfer and image posting in chat 3) Good quality voice calls, video calls and group voice calls 4) Apps for android/iOS with shared contact lists 5) Single application for all of the above (to enable a single group set, switching between group chat and group cal…

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