It's free, fun and easy using Skype to stay in touch with friends and family across the world. Just as in the real world, it’s important that you know how to stay safe on the internet – both when using Skype and other websites.
In order to stay safe online there are a number of simple steps that you can take in order to protect yourself. For instance, did you know it's not recommended to use the same password on multiple sites? Do you know how to spot a phishing email? What the privacy settings in Skype do? Please take the time to read these and the other sections on this page.
You can find out more about online safety from InSafe or Get Safe Online, two authoritative sources of free, up-to-the-minute information and advice about how to keep safe and secure online.
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Passwords
Choosing a secure password to access your Skype account is crucial. Hackers use lists of common passwords to access accounts (not only on Skype but across all websites). It is therefore critical that you use a strong, unique password.
- Use a mixture of letters, numbers and characters - like characters above the numbers on many keyboards such as %, $, £ and !.
- Avoid names as these are easily broken.
- The longer the password is, the stronger it usually is but the harder it is to recall.
- Avoid writing your password down by choosing a password you can remember.
So how can we balance good passwords that need to be long and complex with the ability for a human to remember them without writing them down?
There are a number of ways, so why not try some of the following techniques:
Use a sentence as your password
Passwords are limited to 20 characters but you can create a difficult password to crack by using a short sentence. Include numbers in your passwords, so instead of "MyReallyGoodPassword" try "MyR3allyG00dPassw0rd".
Include uppercase and lowercase
"mypassword" is not as secure as "MyPaSSworD" so add in a few capitalisations.
Make the password personal to you
Your password is something that only you should know and not something that someone else could easily find out. For instance, a password that was the name of your dog or a favourite movie are something that others might know. With the advent of social networking a lot of personal information is available about you, so try to think of something that only you know. How about looking outside and describing something you see "The River Flowing!" or "A Yellow caR".
Unique password per site
We all have large numbers of websites that we have to remember our username and password for but not all sites are created equal. Whilst we at Skype care passionately and invest heavily in your security, unfortunately not all sites do. So use passwords that are unique to each website you use in order to prevent any compromise of those other sites from affecting your Skype account.
Strange and special characters
Including in your password punctuation, symbols and other non standard characters all help to increase the strength of your password. Take care with spaces however, and only use them in the middle of your password and not at the beginning or the end. For example, "I Really L0ve Skype$" and "^ have a $strong password!!"
Change your password regularly
A password should be considered to live for only a short period of time. Keeping the same password for many years is not recommended but equally changing it every day might result in making it hard to remember! So try to change your password as often as practical, for instance a couple of times a year.
And remember, if you ever suspect your password has been compromised sign into Skype and change it immediately. Change your password
Protecting your computer
Viruses can damage your computer and collect your private data, regardless of whether you are using Skype or not. Avoid this by following these tips:
Most viruses these days come in the form of email attachments so don't open attachments from people you don't know, or suspicious-looking attachments even from people you know. When in doubt, always contact the sender to confirm the email is legitimate, even if it looks harmless (such as an e-card or funny picture) at first sight.
- Always use an antivirus program to check the files you receive from other people, whether by Skype or any other method, even if you know the sender. And keep it up-to-date and running at all times.
- Use a personal firewall.
- Make sure you have set your computer to regularly receive the latest security updates and patches. This is not just the operating system itself, for instance Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OSX but also the applications such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.
- Be careful which sites you choose to visit and download content from too. Use the official site.
Visit InSafe or Get Safe Online for more information on using the internet securely.
Keeping Skype up-to-date
Skype will tell you when a major update is available to update Skype, but you can click Skype, Check for Updates (MAC), or (HELP) on Windows, to check if there is a newer version available.
Be wary of any email pretending to be from Skype saying a security update is available, we will NEVER do this. Information regarding updates to the Skype software can always be found on the downloads section of our website.
Privacy settings
Some people are very private, whilst others take to the limelight like ducks to water. Skype keeps both kinds happy as our privacy levels allow users to either keep a low profile, or meet new people in the vast Skype network.
To update your settings on a PC, open Skype and click Tools > Options > Privacy. On a Mac it's Skype > Preferences > Privacy. Here you can set your preferences for receiving communications.
We recommend you do not authorise people whom you do not know and/or do not want to talk to.
Profiles
Setting your Skype profile is easy. Your profile acts as your calling card to millions of other people on Skype. You can add your birthday, gender, phone numbers and location - all of which help other people find you.
Your email address is securely stored by Skype and not shown to anyone else. It is used solely to allow friends and family or business colleagues to search for you in the directory.
Things to remember
- Public parts of your Skype profile can be seen by everyone else on Skype.
- Do not put details in your profile that you do not want to be publicly available.
- You do not have to fill in your profile if you do not want to.
- You can change your profile at any time.
Avoiding online fraud, spam and viruses
Always ensure you trust a website or merchant before giving your credit card information to sites that claim to be reselling Skype products.
You can buy Skype Credit and subscriptions directly from the Skype website. You can also buy accessories safely from the Skype shop.
Never reply to emails that request your credit card details, password or other data. Skype will NEVER request such data by email. Our Customer Support agents may request your payment/order details or ticket tracking numbers for streamlined troubleshooting, but they will never request your credit card data or password.
- You can report illegal resellers or parties misrepresenting themselves as Skype by sending an email to us.
- Learn more about avoiding adware, spyware and malware.
Phishing
Phishing is the process whereby a malicious third party attempts to trick you into providing information that they shouldn't have. For instance, someone could send you an email pretending to be from Skype and ask you to click on a link asking you to sign in and check your account.
When you click this link you are then directed to a website that may look like Skype; however, it is being controlled by a third party and when you enter your Skype Name and password they store this information and use it for malicious purposes.
So how do you defend against phishing? Vigilance. Whilst SPAM filters and other filters are increasingly effective there is always going to be some emails that get through. But by increasing your awareness and alertness in responding to or acting upon those emails or malicious sites you can use simple steps to defeat their attempts.
Emails that have a false sense of urgency, for instance "Unless you click this link your Skype account will be disabled", or "Your account has been compromised, click here to view details" are both examples of asking you to act in haste without verifying the source.
If an email is asking you to perform an action on your account, don't follow the links on the email but type skype.com into your browser and go to your account directly from the Skype website.
If you arrive at a website, through a link or some other such redirection ensure that it says skype.com in the URL and does not contain within the web address additional characters or words. For instance, notskype.com or skype1.com are both invalid web addresses.
And remember, if you do think that your account has been compromised or even susppect it, then go to skype.com and change your password immediately.
