New Skype malware spreading at 2,000 clicks per hour makes money by using victims machines.

New Skype Malware spreading at 2,000 clicks per hour makes money by using victims machines.

A new piece of malware propagating across Skype has been discovered that tries to convince the recipient to click on a link. What makes this particular threat different is that it drops a Bitcoin miner application to make the malware author money.

Security Lab Kaspersky discovered the threat, which it names Trojan.Win32.Jorik.IRCbot.xkt, on Thursday night. At the time, most of the potential victims were from Italy, Russia, Poland, Costa Rica, Spain, Germany, and Ukraine, with the average clicking rate hitting 2,000 clicks per hour.

The initial trojan is downloaded from a server located in India, and many anti-malware programs as measured by VirusTotal don’t detect it. Once the machine is infected, the trojan drops multiple other pieces of malware, using Hotfile to grab the bits and also connecting to a server located in Germany for further instructions. Its quit cleverly coded but there is one really huge bug in code that it slow down computer by using whole CUP.

To avoid this threat and others like it, don’t click on random links you receive on Skype. You’ll be doing yourself a favor, helping stop the spread of malware, and ensuring criminals get a smaller pay day.

Reference : Link

Skype co-operating closely with Intelligence Agency to help them spy on users

Skype is co-operating more closely with  Intelligence Agency to help them spy on users. This is also red alert for hacker and companies private plans.  They all are under monitoring.

The online phone service, used by friends and families to keep in touch but also favoured by political dissidents and criminals, is making online chat and other user information available to police, according to The Washington Post.

Surveillance of the audio and video feeds remains impractical, even when courts issue warrants, industry officials told the newspaper.

But the changes, apparently in effect since late last year, allow police surveillance of online chats, Skype's instant messaging feature, as well as access to addresses and credit card numbers of users.

The Washington Post said U.S. officials have long pushed for greater access to online conversations to resolve what the FBI labels the 'going dark' problem.

They complain that Skype's encryption and other features made tracking drug lords, pedophiles and terrorists more difficult and police listening to traditional wiretaps have even heard suspects suggest 'let's talk on Skype' because it is more secure, The Post reports.

Law enforcement are thrilled by the changes to Skype, which was acquired by Microsoft, an organisation known for working closely with authorities, in May 2011 for $8.5 million, but activists are wary.

'The issue is, to what extent are our communications being purpose-built to make surveillance easy?' Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility, told The Post.

'When you make it easy to do, law enforcement is going to want to use it more and more. If you build it, they will come.'

                          

Skype, which has 600 million users worldwide, said in a statement: 'As was true before the Microsoft acquisition, Skype cooperates with law enforcement agencies as is legally required and technically feasible.'

Skype calls connect computers directly rather than routing data through central servers, as many other Internet-based communication systems do, which makes it more difficult for police to intercept the call.

Some claim Skype loses its competitive edge in the crowded world of Internet-based communication if users no longer see it as more private than rivals.

'Skype used to be very special because it really was locked up,' an industry official told The Post. 'Now it’s like Superman without his powers.'