<<<... I'm not really interested in why eBay bought Skype (although I'm pretty sure it's to make it easier for bidders to contact sellers) or whether or not the auction giant paid too much money or not (the general consensus seems to be: "Oh yeah!") for a company that has made $60m this year but has yet to post a profit. I'm more interested in what the purchase of Skype means for security. What's that you said?

Skype has many things going for it. Among the various software-based VoIP apps (which thereby excludes hardware-based offerings like Vonage from consideration), Skype probably works the best in terms of computer-to-computer, computer-to-land line, and computer-to-cell based calling. It's easy to set up and use, and it works on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux boxes. Skype also provides more than just VoIP, with IM and file transfer also available. I've used it quite a bit, and overall, I've been happy with its sound quality, as have many other people, given that the program has been downloaded more than 100 million times. It has more than 52 million registered users (among those two million paying customers), and well over three million people are online and using the program right now, as I'm typing this column. But that doesn't mean that Skype is perfect. Far from it. Skype claims that it uses strong encryption to protect phone calls, IM messages, and file transfers:... more >>>