Skype responds to Trojan security threat

Skype fixed two security issues in its telephone service to reduce spam and limite the damage caused by the newly disclosed Peskyspy Trojan.

It wrote in its blog yesterday that a new version of Skype for Windows reduces spam by ensuring that "links are not clickable in contact-authorisation requests".

"The new release is a bugfix release which resolves many of the problems you have been telling us about," read the post. "We recommend everyone to update to this build now."

The update to version 4.1 will also resolve video freezing issues and Skype said that PCs that do not support older technology will no longer crash on startup.

In a separate blog post, Skype's Peter Parkes responded for the first time to widespread news of a Trojan that listens in and records Skype conversations.

"In order for this Trojan to 'listen in', it has to be run on your computer, which means that your computer is already compromised by a virus," he wrote.

"It doesn't exploit the Skype software. Instead it 'listens in' to the audio data which is transferred between Skype and your computer hardware - your headset and microphone, for example - and it does this using processes which are available in Microsoft Windows. It's like standing next to someone when they are talking."

Parkes urged users to not open files from people they do not trust, and to stay current with patches and security software.