NYU-Poly professor helps expose Skype security flaw
- Bill Sanderson for nypost.com October 24th, 2011
- Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/nyu_poly_professor_helps_expose_wRgX2oOqtKe1bxHAsH6UHK
There’s nowhere for Skype users to hide, thanks to a flagrant security flaw in the service.
The serious breach in the widely used, Internet video chat program means that any evil computer nerd could easily hunt down users’ whereabouts, says a study co-authored by an NYU-Poly professor.
Blackmailers, for example, could use the flaw to track the travels of a cheating spouse, said Professor Keith Ross, part of an international team of researchers who uncovered the problem.
But more alarmingly, terrorists or criminals could use the security gap to determine the locations of groups of government officials or employees of large organization, he said.
