Microsoft Thought Skype Was a Virus

Trying to open an application but being unable to do that due to an unknown reason is extremely frustrating especially when the application is used for Internet communications. This is exactly what happened to some users a few days ago, as Microsoft's security application wrongly identified Skype as malware.

Since the security tools though the VoIP client is a threat, the program was blocked so users were unable to start it. Villu Arak of Skype said that only a few Microsoft programs flagged Skype as Win32/Vundo.gen!D, as it follows: Microsoft Forefront Client Security, Windows Live OneCare and Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner.

"Earlier this week, security researchers at the Microsoft Malware Protection Center discovered that some Microsoft antimalware products such as Windows Live OneCare were incorrectly identifying some versions of Skype as malware. Such products may stop Skype’s operation and falsely notify the user about the following malware: Trojan:Win32/Vundo.gen!D," Villu Arak informed.

According to a Microsoft security advisory, the virus definitions were updated after three days since they were initially delivered to the users of the applications mentioned above. The glitch occurred on April 18 while the fix was released on April 21, Microsoft explains in the notification.

"On April 18, 2008, a signature for Trojan:Win32/Vundo.gen!D started detecting Skype, an Internet messaging application. On April 21, 2008, Microsoft released a new signature that addresses the issue. Signature versions 1.31.9121.0 and higher include this fix," the Redmond-based company stated.

In case you still encounter problems when trying to run Skype and you have one of the Microsoft security tools mentioned above, hit the update button and try again when the update is finished. If you wish to download the latest release of Skype, you can take it straight from Softpedia using this link.

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