Trojan snoops on Skype calls

The security firm Symantec has warned that code for a Trojan program that snoops on internet telephone conversations is being circulated online.

The appropriately named Trojan.Peskyspy software targets users of the popular Skype internet telephone software. It uses tools built into Windows to intercept the audio from the call and record it as MP3 files that can later be transferred to the attacker's computer.

However, Symantec's Con Mallon told Computeractive the program is not a great risk to Skype users.

"We don't think that people have been infected because it doesn't have a robust propogation method at this point", he said.

"It has to be downloaded. It's not a worm, and has no way of propogating itself. It's just technically interesting."

Anti-virus companies, including Symantec, have already updated their definition files to counteract the threat.