Here's what a Microsoft spokesperson said about the backdoor:
"We do not build backdoors into our products, but we do continuously improve the product experience [and] product security and encourage customers to always upgrade to the latest version."
Trustwave also speculated that the backdoor believed to have been accidently left in Skype "during the process of implementing the dashboard plugin," as the Skype dashboard widget does not appear to utilize it.
Wire is a good Skype alternative as well, it feels similar to Skype which is good for the average consumer. I also believe it was created by the same people involved with the first versions of Skype (pre-microsoft), but I might be wrong there (http://wire.com)
Is anyone who uses Skype really that worried about something like this? Microsoft, government agencies and who knows who else already as access to you through Skype, are you really going to be that much more worried if some un-approved third party gets access as well?
Yes. While Microsoft and various other have access it is usually protected and encrypted or not critical data like crash reports and the access it limited to certain parties.
This is a no holds barred open access vulnerability. Infinitely more dangerous, especially to the completely totally never once in history nerfd Mac OS...
Whenever there's an exploit anywhere within 24 hours there's a gazillion bots scanning every single IP and hammering the exploit, so yeah people should retain some sense of protective instinct
dude what are you talking about. M$ has made backdoor into skype's encryption on purpose so that the FBI and god knows who else can see all communications. Skype is compromised by default. They talked about this on DEFCON.
Never really liked Skype, but I used it because that's what my friends used at the time. Now I just don't talk to them. Problem solved, no need for Skype on my Macaroni.
Not true. I forgot the list but the bugs in Skype 4 is huge and not maintained. Every security issue in skype founded in the last 2-3 years has not been repaired. using https://web.skype.com is really kind of safer (as safe as it can be on skype).