Skype Chat Worm a Harmless Trojan Horse

The recently discovered VoIP ‘worm’ that uses Skype Chat, to infiltrate into users’ computers, has confused internet security firms about its potency and character. Internet security firm, Websense, had issued a warning, earlier this week, alerting web users of instant messages on Skype Chat, which asked users to download and run a file called sp.exe.

Websense reported that once the corrupted file is executed, it installs spyware, to steal passwords and other personal information, from the internet user’s computer. It also connects to a remote server to download additional code. According to Websense, the worm has traveled across the Asia-Pacific region, possibly from Korea, but data about the number of users affected, was not available.

Websense has now revised the warning on its site, and re-characterized the threat as a Trojan horse. A Trojan horse is s a computer program, either hidden inside another program or that masquerades as something it is not, in order to trick potential users into running it.

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The trojan, as in this case, can also be harmless. In the revised warning, Websense clarified that the behavior of the Trojan using the Skype API (application programming interface) is as per the specifications of the API. It stated that the end user, who is running Skype, does get notified that a program is attempting to access it and must acknowledge it. However, there is no vulnerability in Skype, at present.

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