As of September 30, Skype hit over 520MM accounts.

Skype to Skype minutes  surged to over 27 Billion

Graphs from Jean Mercier Blog

Skype is now running at an annualized revenue of  almost $750MM

Skype had a booth at VoiceCon. They had continuous traffic. The big topic was Skype’s support for the Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) which allows Skype to connect to existing PBXs.

Siemens, IBM, MSoft and Avaya are competing to be the Unified Communication provider for the Enterprise. They whole scene reminded me of the time when Unix boxes started to appear in the enterprise.  Skype is still a nit from a revenue standpoint compared to a Siemens but is in a great position to play a dominate role as the platform for communication moves from hardware to software.

One speaker reported replacing 600 PBXs at remote offices with 2 Servers running SIP in his datacenter. If that isn’t a Paradigm shift, I don’t know what is.

InnerPass is warning Skype users of a new phishing scam spreading through direct Skype Chat messages on the Skype network, which redirects you to a fake log-in page to steal your Skype username and Skype password. The team at InnerPass found this out the hard way!  If you receive a strange direct Skype text message from one of your own contacts in your Skype contact list, and it takes you to a Skype log-in page, DO NOT LOG IN!

You may want to check with that person first but you should ask yourself ‘why am I being asked to enter my Skype name and Skype Password?’  The site will look identical to the real site but the URL may divulge that it’s a dodgy link.   Don’t be fooled because if you do enter your Skype name and Skype password then they will have your Skype login credentials.  Once they do they can login as you.   As you, they will send out the same bad link to all of your contacts and it will look like it came from you.  It happened to me personally because I didn’t know how to recognize this scam.  

The Skype phishing link started out looking official with Skype.com in the link but it included additional text after the link that I didn’t recognize.  Furthermore, the login page looked identical to that of Skype. 

It’s important to note here that Skype isn’t alone.  There’s been an increase in this type of scamming and it’s affecting some of the popular social media networks including Twitter and Facebook.

If you need to know what to do if you were caught by the scam you can contact us at support@innerpass.com and we can send you some information.     Below is a list of other sources that will help you understand more about phishing. 

Helpful References

Source – Wikipedia: “ In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Read more at  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

Source – Webopedia:  “The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.   Read more at http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/phishing.html

Source – PCWorld:  Twitter is warning users of a new phishing scam spreading through direct messages on the network, which redirects users to a fake log-in page to steal their passwords

http://www.pcworld.com/article/174660/twitter_warns_of_new_phishing_scam.html

Source – Skype:   Fake Malware Alert.  If you receive something like this through a Skype chat message, do not be alarmed. Instead, ignore it and block the sender. This is chat spam aimed at scaring users into purchasing an alleged antivirus product.   http://share.skype.com/sites/security/2007/11/fake_malware_alert.html

Source – Microsoft:  Phishing e-mail messages are designed to steal your identity. They ask for personal data, or direct you to Web sites or phone numbers to call where they ask you to provide personal data.  Phishing e-mail messages take a number of forms… read more http://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/phishing/symptoms.aspx

Source – Fruad.org:  Watch out for “phishy” emails. The most common form of phishing is emails pretending to be from a legitimate retailer, bank, organization, or government agency. The sender asks to “confirm” your personal information for some made-up reason… read more http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/phishing.htm

Several of you asked me about the conference room in the cloud picture so I’ll try my best to explain it here.  InnerPass is very much on board with the industry trend ‘cloud computing’.  You can think of cloud computing as a way to use applications over the internet, but the applications are independent of platforms and physical hardware.  One of the best explanations I’ve found is by Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media.  He said “everything that we think of as a computer today is really just a device that connects to the big computer that we’re all collectively building.  Cloud computing is really the movement of computing into this network of all connected devices, this network of networks.”

If you’d like to hear more, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PNuQHUiV3Q to hear what several folks in the industry have to say about cloud computing.  Tim O’Reilly’s explanation is about 5.18 seconds into the video.

 “I love this product and I am not leaving it for anything.”

 “We have been able to get InnerPass to work for us and are thrilled with its abilities.  We have been recommending it to others like crazy.   Thank you.”  

“Works great, I love how you can click one button to call everyone in the room and they can see the files in that room.”

This is just a handful of the feedback we’ve been receiving from you and we’re so glad you love our product.   Here at InnerPass we take a lot of pride in providing you with a great collaborative tool, and we’re always looking for ways to improve it.   You can send us feedback anytime by selecting the ‘Feedback’ button on the InnerPass toolbar.  Feel free to let us know any way we can make the tool easier to use, and let us know if anything is not clear or straightforward.   We’re also proud of our customer service.  Among the many compliments we received this one made my day:  ‘Thanks for being so prompt with your help.  A lot of support organizations could learn a lot from you.” 

When you get a chance, check out www.innerpass.com/promo.aspx to see our latest promotion.  We’re offering 50% off when you purchase any annual plan, plus your name will be entered into a drawing for a New Skype Video Phone.

So keep the comments coming…we love hearing from you.  Until then…Happy InnerPassing!

 Cathy’s quote of the month:

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

-Bill Gates

Jean Mercier has been the unofficial Skype Score Keeper for several years. One of the items he tracks is when the # of Skype users online reaches a new Million Mark.    Amazingly it took only 21 calendar days for it to go from 18 Million to 19 Million. In the past it has taken as long as 9 months to jump 1 Million (see Jean’s chart below).  I believe business people world wide are discovering Skype as an effective way to reduce international communications costs.

InnerPass (IP) takes a large leap towards Unified Communications and Collaboration with the highly anticipated release of the latest version of their Skype application, InnerPass 2.0. The application conquers the difficult task that many web conferencing systems have in offering an affordable solution that’s both intuitive and robust.   2.0  has a sleek new professional interface that allows you to access its core functions of file sharing, conference calling, screen sharing and group chat from a single page.

Read More

So much has been happening here behind the scenes at InnerPass and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve been up to!  First I must introduce myself – my name is Cathy and I’m the newest member of the InnerPass team.  I am so thrilled to be joining at this time because within weeks we will release InnerPass Version 2.0 with many exciting new features.  First of all, the user interface is much more friendly and intuitive.  You will be able to create a meeting room, upload documents to that room, and add participants to that room all on the same page.  You will still be able to import contacts from Skype, but the new release will allow you to import contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, Plaxo, Myspace, LinkedIn, Hotmail, and several other mail sources as well.  Screen Sharing has also been simplified.  You can still start a screen sharing session from a meeting room or contact list as before but this feature is so popular that we gave it its own tab on the InnerPass toolbar.

One of the features of InnerPass that you have long enjoyed is our online support service.  This feature which has been supported only on our website will also be supported on the application with the release of 2.0.  In fact, when you participate in an online chat for help, there’s a chance you’ll be talking to me.  I’ll be looking forward to that.  Until then, Happy InnerPassing!

Cathy’s quote of the month:

“Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”
Edsger Kijkstra

Have you Discovered Skype?

“…However, I see Skype’s greatest impact on the business world. Years ago, it was a giant production and great expense to set up a video conference between offices in different locations. Now all you need to do is download Skype. Skype has increased the communication within organizations and allowed people to effectively communicate and hold meetings even when they can not be in the office. And they have added features specifically aimed towards helping businesses more effectively conference via there services.

Ben Parr (for Mashable: The Social Media Guide) writes, “InnerPass is a Skype add-on, so it is desktop software. Once installed, it provides a simple interface for businesses to easily collaborate and share information and files, as well as set up video conferences.” (InnerPass has a monthly subscription fee of $4.95).

InnerPass’s most useful features are, Virtual Meeting Rooms (which make it simple to share links and files with anyone in the room), Contact management within its list system (helpful for separating business from personal contacts), and Screen Sharing (for live demos or presentations).

ArtiSans has already implemented the use of Skype to their daily way of doing business. ArtiSans employees have a daily web-conference to increase company communication and to be sure everyone is on the same page about what needs to be done. It is a great way for us to meet daily without having to interrupt the flow of our business away from the office/studio. Also, Skype allows us to hold meetings with vendors and clients who are not local. By using Skype to conference with them, we don’t have to spend money on travel, and can meet quicker to resolve any issues or communicate on a project…”

Read Full Article

With more than 400 million users globally, Skype is perhaps the biggest online communication network of them all.  Although Skype’s original claim to fame was free phone calls over a broadband connection, the service has since emerged into much more, with the latest major upgrade, Skype 4.0 (and subsequently 4.1) adding features, upgrading usability, and improving call quality to a point where the software is now reliable enough to be a persistent part of your business communications.

So what can you do with Skype these days?  Here’s a rundown of both the basic functionality and some of the newer enhancements that your business might find useful….(read the rest of the article written by Adam Ostrow by clicking below)

how-to-use-skype-for-business-communications-adam-ostrow

Hello InnerPassers, Curtis again. I wanted to let you all know about a cool new feature we added to support a few months ago, it’s our Live Support. This feature will allow us to further assist our users in getting the most out of InnerPass. It’s a great way for our users to get immediate answers to just about any question you can think of. This Live Support is monitored by our Sales and Support team during our normal business hours Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm EST. And if we are tied up on another chat or no one is available then your question will be submitted via email, allowing us to get back to you as soon as possible. To find our Live Support just go to our website at www.InnerPass.com. When we launch InnerPass 2.0 on Skype (sometime in August) the Live Support will be inside the application to help all of our users. Thanks and Happy InnerPassing.