Actually, it's probably not a vulnerability, it's a feature... (and did it
before Microsoft bought them so we can't even blame M$).
Skype was originally set up to do peer to peer communication without going
through any sort of centralized Skype-owned servers. I believe it still does
that some of the time, but much of it now goes through Microsoft's servers
(potentially to comply with wiretapping laws and increase security generally).
Basically, Skype distributes processing among various computers that have Skype
up and running, which ends up sucking up bandwidth. Here's a not-very-helpful
explanation from the Skype web page:
https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10983/what-are-p2p-communications
Because of that, I only open up Skype when I'm calling someone or expecting a
call.
Brent
________________________________
From: Nick Thompson <[email protected]>
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, September 6, 2013 10:04 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] [EXTERNAL] Urgent: skype vulnerability?
Thanks, Raymond,
There is nobody else within an eight of a mile and the wifi barely reaches
across the house.
The stuff on my computer is standard office stuff. The only unusual program I
have is the music program finale.
Does uninstalling Skype really get rid of it. It had become a really pushy
program and it fought of uninstallation for a bit.
When I get back to Santa Fe, I think I am going to wipe the hard disk and start
again. Try to limp along until then.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
From:Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Parks, Raymond
Sent: Friday, September 06, 2013 7:30 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] [EXTERNAL] Urgent: skype vulnerability?
I did a quick search through my data and there haven't been any major Skype
vulns in a while. There's a local privilege escalation from this last spring
and URL snooping, but neither should result in massive Skype usage. The Dark
Comet Remote Access Tool (RAT) uses the Skype port and protocol to "phone
home", so you might have a pest problem. Even worse, a vulnerability was
published last fall for getting in to the Dark Comet RAT via it's use of Skype
- so if you have Dark Comet, someone could be breaking it to get into your
computer.
I'd do an off-line, boot from CD/DVD, virus scan with your anti-virus of choice.
The Jet Pack provides a wireless access point - could someone be piggybacking
on that? What's your WiFi security?
Ray Parks
Consilient Heuristician/IDART Program Manager
V: 505-844-4024 M: 505-238-9359 P: 505-951-6084
NIPR: [email protected]
SIPR: [email protected] (send NIPR reminder)
JWICS: [email protected] (send NIPR reminder)
On Sep 6, 2013, at 5:03 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
Hi, everybody,
>
>I have a Verizon jet pack for my internet here in Massachusetts and every once
>in a while huge charges have appeared on my usage, apparent downloads of a
>gigabyte scale of magnitude. I complained to Verizon and they did an analysis
>of my record and tell me that these are VOIP usages. Their suspicion is that
>some teenager in my house is using the box to make phone calls over skype.
>But there is no teenager in my house and no other house within an eighth of a
>mile. Is it possible that some Trojan is using skype to communicate. Why?
>What would be the benefit to the hacker. Using my computer for what? In any
>case, I have murdered skype. Is there any other abuse of the voip protocol
>that could be going on in my computer? Can I disable voip altogether on my
>machine? My service costs ten dollars a gig, so this is not a small matter
>for me. Anybody have any thoughts?
>
>Nick
>
>Nicholas S. Thompson
>Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>Clark University
>http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>
>
>============================================================
>FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
