How do you protect your Skype account thoroughly?

After seeing a lot of people complaining about how their Skype got hacked, I'm wondering how do I protect my Skype account. I used the latest antivirus software (Norton 2011) , used strong pass phrases, and change like once a month. I'm wondering if anything is missing because a friend did what I did and despite that got his hacked.

What I would like to know is HOW to DELETE the Account....I tried but still google it and it shows up

can anyone explain to me the purpose of hacking a free service?

what exactly did they do to your account? what kind of information do you keep on skype that they'd want to hack you?

just curious....

personally I have near zero security, they're all free to hack me - I have nothing to hide, and they have nothing to gain by doing so

reply to post by Forevever


well it's my friend actually that got hacked. Apparently he was using the paying service. I use the free service. However I'm worried it might happen since I'm planning on putting credits there.

Don't have one!

Originally posted by starwarsisreal
reply to post by Forevever

 

well it's my friend actually that got hacked. Apparently he was using the paying service. I use the free service. However I'm worried it might happen since I'm planning on putting credits there.

edit on 28-6-2011 by starwarsisreal because: (no reason given)

Well, if you must get skype to make real phone calls, I can only suggest a really strong password - something with at least 10 characters and a mix of alpha and numerics (don't use your initials and your birthday) - 9 times out of 10 the people I meet who claim to have been hacked have not really been hacked, but cracked (means someone guessed their password)

If a hacker really wants to hack skype, they're probably going to go through skype's system, they shouldn't target you specifically IMHO unless you link your skype with paypal or other accounts involving money. If they do hack skype directly, I guess at that point you could be screwed, depending on how good skype encryption is.

Why not just get a cheap throw away cell phone to make calls? Would surely be safer... and for video calls (if you can't afford the phone with that feature), make the other party sign up for the free version (thats what I did)

OH ETA - a friend of mine does have MagicJack - he likes it - maybe thats a route to consider

reply to post by Forevever


but I also have another friend who got hacked and he uses free user. Is there a hole on his?

reply to post by starwarsisreal


Like I said, odds are he got cracked, not hacked - it was probably someone he knew trying to see what he was up to - if they have nothing to gain from that account, I'm sure they wouldn't bother full on hacking it

what did the "hacker" do to the account?

reply to post by Forevever


well he actually send offensive messages to his contacts. And my friend told me he that he made sure his account was safed. I suspect that it might have something to do with tracking cookies.

reply to post by starwarsisreal

then his computer got hacked, not skype
cookies are stored locally on your system

they're basically text files that a website can read from

in which case, he should be careful what websites he visits

the 10th time in the previously mentioned 9 out of 10 - is usually because someone went somewhere they shouldn't have, or downloaded and executed something they shouldnt have (often referred to as a trojan, because they think its a good thing, and it really isn't)

reply to post by Forevever


well any other advise on what should I do to protect myself?

reply to post by starwarsisreal


strong password - 10 or more characters like I said, that include both numbers and letters

avoid shady websites (if you see a naked female, its probably a shady website, if you download from p2p servers, you're at risk, anything you download onto your system that needs to be "run", you're at risk, I never download anything that I can't get from download.com)

my strongest recommendation is don't stress about it

at the end of the day, if they want to hack you specifically - they're going to find a way - if not through skype, through some other service you use

ETA - Everytime you do anything, ask yourself "is this worth losing my computer over?" if the answer is "no" - don't do it

reply to post by Forevever


oh what about keyloggers? Is there anyway I can avoid that

reply to post by starwarsisreal


same thing, has to be downloaded and run for it to work on your system

reply to post by Forevever


Anyway thanks for the tips I'll give stars for this