Skype Security Alert – Tapping of Skype now Public Knowledge.

A Swiss software engineer has made available a hack into Skype so that encrypted telephone conversations can be tapped.

The hack can be installed via a trojan onto a PC and can run in the background in a covert fashion. The Trojan hooks into Skype processes during telephony and then desyphers the encryption, the files are secretly recorded and sent remotely as MP3 files to an external server.

Skype have always declared their system to be secure and the official line was always that Skype cannot be hacked, this will come as a major blow to Skype security and has serious implications for those using the system.

Rumours about Skype vulnerability for hacks first surfaced in 2008 when a letter was published claiming that the Bavarian authorities had used a similar program and the allegations were never denied.

What is suprising is the early release of the code to open markets and the raising of the profile for this Skype tapping code, currently Skype have made no Comment.