Skype & PayPal Calling All Hackers

 Tech Search Blog

Soon you’ll be able to send or request PayPal payments from directly within Skype. Sounds convenient — but will it open a gaping hole through which hackers can gain access to your PayPal money?
Details of exactly how PayPal will integrate with Skype have yet to be released. Screenshots show links to paying or requesting money via PayPal showing up on a Skype drop-down menu when you right-click a contact.

Beyond that, we don’t know how payment will actually occur. Will the link merely send you to your PayPal login screen? Or will there be deeper integration, in which you bypass login entirely, and money gets transferred automatically?

Count on deep integration, rather than mere links. And that could spell trouble. VoIP is notoriously insecure, and network administrators in particular fear Skype, and have doing what they can to ban it from their networks.

The potential problems are myriad. VoIP spam will soon be upon us, and expect there to be plenty of Skype-specific spam with automated PayPal links, for example.

Identity spoofing is another possibility as well, with you sending money to scammers posing as real acquaintances. And more direct hacking of PayPal accounts may be possible as well.