14 DAY TRIAL // I guess all of you agree that Skype is the most powerful VoIP application because it provides the best quality bundled with a low usage of Internet connection bandwidth. That's why Skype tends to become more and more present on the computers from every corner of the world; however, it seems that the application can be sometimes very dangerous. Why, you'll ask. The popularity of the program is not always a good part of it because the online attackers are now aiming to hack computers through the instant messaging client.
Websense Security Labs identified a new threat distributed on Skype that tries to spread using a link redirecting users to a Warezov/Stration malicious code website. The security company sustained the users are receiving a message saying "Check up this" that will redirect them to a website host with an infected file. It looks like the infected file is named "file_01.exe" and once it is executed it will download other executable and will infect the computer.
"The user's contacts also receive the URL within Skype. Once the Trojan is installed in a system, it tries to connect to a Yahoo mail server to send an SMTP message. However, that server does not seem to be operative and the communication fails. This inoperability is probably an attempt to notify the attacker that a certain machine has been infected," Websense Security Labs sustained in a security advisory published on their page.
It is very important to know that Skype isn't vulnerable and it doesn't contain any security flaws because the attackers can spread the links on any other instant messaging clients currently available (Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk). The problem with the infected link was also reported some time ago by the F-Secure team but it seems like it is continuously spreading so it's obvious Skype is now longer a secure application.
If you want to download the latest version of Skype, you can find it on Softpedia on this link.