Skype responds to security breach

Josh Silverman, president of Skype, responded in his blog Thursday to media reports about unauthorized storage of text messages and user data by Skype's Chinese partner TOM Online. Silverman explains that Skype considered the possibility of texts not going through because of Chinese censorship standards that TOM had to meet in order to operate in the country. He stressed that TOM had to ensure Chinese government access to the communications to operate at all, but that Skype leadership was assured any "offensive" communications would simply be deleted.

"Breaching Trust," the report that sparked Silverman's response, found a security breach on the servers where "offensive" communications are stored that enabled public access to the information. Silverman assured Skype users that TOM remedied the security breach after Skype made them aware of it. He also noted that Skype was working with TOM on the storage of the "offensive" text conversations and accompanying user data.

Silverman also stressed that the compromised communications only affected text conversations in which at least one of the users was using TOM, and that Skype-Skype communications are completely secure and safe. 

For more:
- see Silverman's blog post here [1] 

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