A new wave of spam has been spotted on Skype over the past few days. Link apparently related to Baidu search engine actually led to other shores with fraudulent purposes. Here’s everything you need to know to protect yourself.
In recent day’s several users, even the most experienced of the average Internet users who spend time surfing online, they received and sent spam messages that contain links to Skype, which offered the malicious software downloads. A fall for not only were the mass users, the less aware of the pitfalls of the web, but also experts and users aware, deceived by the presence of Baidu name within the URL suggested by their friends.
The two cases have several similarities: in both fact is exploited the name of a search engine to spread spam (Baidu is the most popular search engine in China), and in both a compromised account send messages to contacts in the phone book also when powered down. In these cases, users with compromised accounts to send spam notice only after being informed by contacts since it is difficult to identify other ” symptoms ” from exploits occurred.
Spam on Skype, how to solve?
In the case of Skype goo.gl link declared that with a high probability accounts that send these messages have been compromised, that are used by third party users with malicious purposes without authorization from the owner. To protect yourself and stay as safe as possible you need to perform various procedures that the same Skype team said in a page of the official blog.
- Check your computer’s security : specifically whether security tools, such as antivirus, firewall, and malware detection tools are up to date and active in the background. Tools like keyloggers can be used, for example, to steal sensitive credentials such as passwords for access to services.
- Update the access password : cases like this often occur because users use the same password to access many different services. This means that the password lists that are stolen and sold in illegal markets may also be used on other services effectively. Although Skype servers have not been recently violated, it is likely that the attackers have used stolen passwords to access the service elsewhere. It is not necessary to maintain this policy and change the passwords on all services. To change passwords on Skype, you have to go to this address, select Security and privacy, and press Change password.
- Protect the Skype account : the service offers the possibility of logging on with two-factor verification. Here you will find more information on the features and how to activate it on your account.
We also want to share this article on the official forum link Skype with all contacts from which you have received spam with fraudulent purposes. Finally, it is good to check if there are no third-party applications that have access Skype desktop application installed on your computer. To do this, and to eliminate any intrusions, we recommend these easy steps:
- Enter the Skype options. From the top menu bar, select: Tools > Options.
- Open the Advanced section.
- In the lower part of the page there is a link ” Manage access to Skype from other programs “. Select it and remove all items for which you are not aware.