The Skype “worm” has now been categorized as a rather harmless Trojan. Here’s the actual alert from Websense:

Yesterday Websense Security Labs reported on our blog that there was a potential Worm propagating via Skype (see: http://www.websense.com/securitylabs/blog/blog.php?BlogID=101). After investigation we have discovered that this is not a self propagating worm and is actually a Trojan Horse.

After discussions with the very helpful Skype security team, the behavior of this Trojan using the Skype API is as per the specifications of the API. The end-user who is running Skype does get notified that a program is attempting to access it and must acknowledge it.

*there is no vulnerability in Skype at this time that has been uncovered*

For more details on the Skype API see https://developer.skype.com/Docs/ApiDoc/Overview_of_the_Skype_API

At the time of this alert the websites that were used to download the Skype API code and the site that is used to download new copies of the Trojan were both down.

Also check out the Hack Report article “To Skpe or not to Skype…”

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So I’m a happy Skype user. I can answer my “phone” anywhere in the Internet-connected world. I can get a phone number in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, or a foreign country. There is call forwarding, video calls, voicemail, instant messaging, SMS messaging, file transfers, conference calls, and for a limited time I can call traditional phones in the US and Canada for free. It can be integrated into my web browser and email reader for a more seamless workflow. I can buy the amount of credit I need instead of being shocked when a big bill arrives. What’s not to like about that?

Full article…

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