Skype says ‘massive restart’ triggered breakdown

Skype, the popular free telephone service via Internet, said today that a “massive restart” of users’ computers was to blame for a two-day breakdown that affected more than 220 million users globally.

“On Thursday, August 16, the Skype peer-to-peer network became unstable and suffered a critical disruption … initiated by a massive restart of our user’s computers across the globe” after receiving a routine software update, Skype said in a statement on the company’s website.

Skype technology is based on a “peer-to-peer” application, which directly connects the computer of one subscriber to the computer of another. ”The abnormally high number of restarts caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact,” the statement said.

The breakdown revealed a programming error in the system, which prevented the system from recovering quickly. The problem was identified and corrected, it said. ”We can confirm categorically that no malicious activities were attributed or that our users’ security was not, at any point, at risk,” it said.

Skype’s customers access telephone service free via Internet, or connect computers to telephone land lines or cell phones for a small fee.

Source: Media Network, AFP