Researcher 'reverse engineers' Skype

Voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) giant Skype has accused a Russian researcher who claims to have reverse engineered the company's popular VOIP client of promoting malicious 'subversion' of the system, reports ZDnet.

Freelance researcher Efim Bushmanov set up a blog on which he posted binaries purporting to be the reverse-engineered Skype protocol.

Skype's protocol is proprietary, and key to the company's purchase by Microsoft, but Bushmanov indicated he wanted to create an open source version.

Skype has responded to the news saying that unauthorised use of its service is an infringement of the company's intellectual property, and it will take necessary action to prevent attempts to subvert the Skype experience, says Techie Insider.

Skype was recently acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion, which means that the next move in this case is Microsoft's, according to InformationWeek.