Skype – IP will now be hidden by default to avoid attacks

Skype announced it will hide the user’s IP address, the new security feature is enabled by default in the latest update provided by the company.

Skype now hides users’ IP addresses, a measure implemented to protect them against attacks from online trolls.

Skype announced the security feature this week in a blog post, the feature is enabled by default in the latest update provided by the company.

Previously, it was quite easy to obtain the IP address of a Skype user when knowing the target’s Skype name, and target it. Online there are many websites, the so-called ‘resolvers,’ that can reveal the IP address of a Skype user.

“What’s changed is that over the past year, a number of services have emerged to help snoops and ne’er-do-wells exploit this vulnerability to track and harass others online. For example, an online search for “skype resolver” returns dozens of results that point to services (of variable reliability) that allow users to look up the Internet address of any Skype user, just by supplying the target’s Skype account name.” wrote Brian Krebs in a blog post back 2013.

“Skype is fully committed to delivering as safe and secure of an experience as possible to our customers. We have recently introduced the ability to hide a Skype user’s IP address and we’ve set this as a default status in the latest versions of Skype.” states Skype.

According to the company, the new security measure aims to protect online gamers, the experts at Skype observed that when people lose major online battles or matches use to launch a distributed denial of service attack knocking their rivals offline.

Now If you want to hide your address make sure you are using the latest version of Skype.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Skype, privacy)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.