Researchers ID Skype, BitTorrent Users

Posted by Soulskill on Friday October 21, 2011 @05:45AM from the cross-contamination dept.

itwbennett writes "Researchers have figured out a way to link online Skype users to their activity on peer-to-peer networks like BitTorrent. The team was able to sift out the nodes through which Skype calls are routed and determine the user's real IP address by sniffing the packets. To correlate the identified Skype users with files shared on BitTorrent, the researchers built tools to collect BitTorrent file identifiers, a BitTorrent crawler to collect IP addresses on the network and a verifier to match an online Skype user with an online BitTorrent user (PDF). 'As soon as the BitTorrent crawler detects a matching IP address, it signals the verifier, which immediately calls the corresponding Skype user and, at the same time, initiates a handshake with the BitTorrent client,' they wrote."

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Researchers? by HellYeahAutomaton · 2011-10-21 05:51 · Score: 1, Flamebait

C'mon!
Where do they get off calling these guys researchers, when they are clearly criminals attempting to invade the reasonably expected privacy of Skype users and BT users? These guys are peeping toms at best and identity thieves at worse.
Hold the organizations that employ these guys accountable.