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Tell HN: Microsoft Skype Security Is Flawed

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Tell HN: Microsoft Skype Security Is Flawed

#11

Post by Svip »

gruturo wrote: post #10

That's a scary amount of information which is being asked of you. Are you sure the site asking for it is a genuine Microsoft asset?

I lost my password to go through the same process a few years ago, so I can confirm that yes, they do ask you for a lot of personal information. I did not get an email asking for it, I went to Skype's website to find support.

Fortunately my account was not in the process of being hacked, so I was more willing to provide information. Yet despite that, they would not provide me access to my account, and thus I have not used Skype since.

Re: Tell HN: Microsoft Skype Security Is Flawed

#12

Post by gmaster1440 »

rodolphoarruda wrote: post #9

> Both emails encouraged me to contact customer support. I did so only to be met with a request to fill out an online form with an incredible amount of personal information to verify the account. Why would I provide 10X the personal info (...)? This by itself looks like a phishing attack. Did you click a link to Skype support in the second email message or find it by yourself going to the Skype website and browsing a…

Also very confident that this is a phishing attack, have received similar emails for Office 365 as well. If you examine the email headers you'll notice a suspicious "From:" address.

Re: Tell HN: Microsoft Skype Security Is Flawed

#13

Post by superkuh »

Skype security has been flawed ever since that series of odd buyout events that led to the sudden removal of end-to-end encrypted peer to peer operation.

First eBay bought what they thought was Skype but instead was only the license to the branding and users and not the p2p backend tech the swiss guys still owned. Then Microsoft stepped in out of nowhere to take the useless brand from eBay and the actual backend only to promptly throw away the entire backend and move to a centralized unencrypted model.

Re: Tell HN: Microsoft Skype Security Is Flawed

#14

Post by jacobush »

superkuh wrote: post #13

Skype security has been flawed ever since that series of odd buyout events that led to the sudden removal of end-to-end encrypted peer to peer operation. First eBay bought what they thought was Skype but instead was only the license to the branding and users and not the p2p backend tech the swiss guys still owned. Then Microsoft stepped in out of nowhere to take the useless brand from eBay and the actual backend only…

Didn't MS get money from the DoD at the same time?

Re: Tell HN: Microsoft Skype Security Is Flawed

#15

Post by nelaboras »

superkuh wrote: post #13

Skype security has been flawed ever since that series of odd buyout events that led to the sudden removal of end-to-end encrypted peer to peer operation. First eBay bought what they thought was Skype but instead was only the license to the branding and users and not the p2p backend tech the swiss guys still owned. Then Microsoft stepped in out of nowhere to take the useless brand from eBay and the actual backend only…

Skype was Estonian, not Swiss.

Re: Tell HN: Microsoft Skype Security Is Flawed

#16

Post by z3t4 »

Try to contact all your contacts and tell them that your Skype account have been hacked. Also don't give away any personal details unless you are 100% sure you are dealing with the official support. Your account will likely be used to scam your friends and family. If you have your voice online somewhere they can fake it, or just use the chat to impersonate you. Your personal details and chat history will make it very convincing.

Hi, this is Samnwa, your brother, we talking yesterday about xyz, how is that going? btw, could you help me login to my bank, can't find my key card, can I use yours? Cool, alright, Just enter this number... Ooops I entered it wrong, lets try this number...

Re: Tell HN: Microsoft Skype Security Is Flawed

#17

Post by dragonshed »

superkuh wrote: post #13

Skype security has been flawed ever since that series of odd buyout events that led to the sudden removal of end-to-end encrypted peer to peer operation. First eBay bought what they thought was Skype but instead was only the license to the branding and users and not the p2p backend tech the swiss guys still owned. Then Microsoft stepped in out of nowhere to take the useless brand from eBay and the actual backend only…

They gradually removed[0] the peer to peer operation because it sucked - quality was bad, calls dropped, outages, bad mobile support.

[0] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/05/skype...

Re: Tell HN: Microsoft Skype Security Is Flawed

#18

Post by harryf »

nelaboras wrote: post #15
superkuh wrote: post #13

Skype security has been flawed ever since that series of odd buyout events that led to the sudden removal of end-to-end encrypted peer to peer operation. First eBay bought what they thought was Skype but instead was only the license to the branding and users and not the p2p backend tech the swiss guys still owned. Then Microsoft stepped in out of nowhere to take the useless brand from eBay and the actual backend only…

Skype was Estonian, not Swiss.

Also Swedes (hence the Swiss mistake here)... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype

> First released in August 2003, Skype was created by the Swede Niklas Zennström and the Dane Janus Friis, in cooperation with Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, and Jaan Tallinn, Estonians who developed the backend that was also used in the music-sharing application Kazaa. In September 2005, eBay acquired Skype for $2.6 billion.[11] In September 2009,[12] Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board announced the acquisition of 65% of Skype for $1.9 billion from eBay, which attributed to the enterprise a market value of $2.92 billion. Microsoft bought Skype in May 2011 for $8.5 billion. Skype's division headquarters are in Luxembourg, but most of the development team and 44% of all the division's employees are still situated in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia.

Re: Tell HN: Microsoft Skype Security Is Flawed

#19

Post by fsflover »

dragonshed wrote: post #17
superkuh wrote: post #13

Skype security has been flawed ever since that series of odd buyout events that led to the sudden removal of end-to-end encrypted peer to peer operation. First eBay bought what they thought was Skype but instead was only the license to the branding and users and not the p2p backend tech the swiss guys still owned. Then Microsoft stepped in out of nowhere to take the useless brand from eBay and the actual backend only…

They gradually removed[0] the peer to peer operation because it sucked - quality was bad, calls dropped, outages, bad mobile support. [0] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/05/skype...

Or for another reason:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18411779

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