Live data from Hacker News

How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

hub.zhovner.com

31–40 of 119 posts

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#31

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…

What about wire.com? I think it's a nice app with focus on end-to-end security.

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#32

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 P…

I've dumped all of these services due to random crap like this. Phone, SMS, email or go away. They're not perfect but they are significantly better than anything else.

However if you want a real turd: Skype for Business. Everything starts with 20 minutes trying to work out if it's working or not which for a random subset of people the answer is nope.

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#33
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3) Is not true for me though, it's awful mostly, but that's my pet peeve (all coders assume everyone else is on a 1000mbit connection as well all the time) and MS is really bad at making anything work on bad connections. Office 365 isn't even getting past the 'wait while loading' while Google drive/docs is completely usable when I have a bad connection (which is often). The software that was written for bad connectio…

> 3) Good quality voice calls, video calls and group voice calls In my experience, voice quality issues is almost always due to the people and not the technology.

Well Skype just disconnects often and it takes a while to get back. While the 'others' don't have that as they assume the connection will break / is too slow?

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#34

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…

Google hangouts?

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#35
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

+ screen sharing

That and video seem to be the only things missing from Discord.

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#36

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 started using Pidgin with the Skype plugin, because the company I work for uses Skype for Business (Lync in other words) and that program doesn't log anything, and in business logging is vital. Pidgin is open source, as are all the plugins, making it a good choice for business knowing you aren't installing anything you should not be, and it handles files etc ok, but doesn't do video at all.

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#37
post #4

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.).

A lot of people use Discord now. I mean, you can use it inside of a browser, what can be easier than that?

Seems to be designed for games only, or did I end up in a targeted landing page?

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#38

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…

I switched to Wire a year ago and haven't looked back. It meets all your requirements, and has end-to-end encryption (based on Signal Protocol) too.

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#39
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The support guy sure sounds like an ass... With that said, is your Skype account linked to a Microsoft live account? In that case thats were your contacts should be now.

My account is connected to a Microsoft account, but I can no longer authenticate with my Skype credentials, I can only connect with my Microsoft account now. But it's the same account, the Skype ID is still there. Or in other words, if I indicate my Skype ID as the username in the auth dialog, they now expect my Microsoft password, not my old Skype password (I have unique passwords everywhere). If you have any idea o…

If you are using a Microsoft account, have you try to see if your contacts appears on outlook.com? They should share the same contacts

Re: How Skype fixes security vulnerabilities

#40
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!

That is how the author sarcastically summarized the canned messages sent by Skype. Not very far from the truth, however.
Post reply on HN