Secure Skype or ban it

Info-Tech Research Group has released a report entitled “Five Reason’s To Ban Skype claiming that the popular VoIP technology is just too insecure for business use. They estimate that about 1/3 are business users.

Enterprises should put the application in the same category as Instant Messaging and other peer-to-peer apps. If they ban those, they should ban Skype says the research company.

Here are the five reasons to ban Skype:

1. It’s too firewall-friendly.
2. It has too many vulnerabilities
3. It poses a communication barrier with other countries or institutions.
4. It violates established legal requirements.
5. It’s one more type of communication to secure, monitor, store, and archive.

Update: The website where the report was originally posted on is no longer available. The page returns a 404 not found error.

When you analyze the points that have been made by the research group you will probably come to a different conclusion.

It is true that Skype is a closed source system, but so is the Windows operating system and many of the applications that the majority of computer users use, even in a business environment. A core reason for businesses is that the Skype software may use user computer’s as Super Nodes. These nodes are then used to redirect some of the traffic and may cause excessive bandwidth utilization on the network.

Microsoft recently purchased Skype for 8.5 Billion US Dollars which could improve the voice over IP software’s standing in enterprise and business environments. Like any other popular software, vulnerabilities are detected from time to time. With Microsoft taking over, Skype could however see a more streamlined patching process from which everyone would benefit.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday November 9, 2005 -
Tags:skype, skype tips, voip