Noisy Trojan Gives Users Morality Message

According to TorrentFreak, a weblog that provides up-to-date news on the BitTorrent protocol, a new Trojan virus pretending to be a serial key producer was found on BitTorrent search engines during the 2nd week of January 2009.

While spyware and viruses are commonly found in pirated software, the case of the BiTorrent Trojan is particularly interesting because it actually targeted at the infected computer. First, the Trojan would modify the host file on the user's system to prevent access to the websites Mininova and The Pirate Bay. The Trojan blocks websites by adding the redirect IP 127.0.0.1 to the two URLs inside the host file.

In addition, every time the user tries to access the mentioned sites, he would receive a notice of 'failed connection'. Moreover, the Trojan would run a noisy file, which says, "Downloading is Wrong" when attempts to connect to the websites fail.

TorrentFreak also said that with pirated software are so popular in modern Internet culture, one often forgets that there could be damaging effects of downloading software, besides ones that impact the developers.

Besides, no hacker has claimed to be behind this Trojan. In various online comments and forums, conspiracy theorists have attributed this virus to reasons extending from the beginning of an RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) offensive to users of Mac/Linux tricking Windows users.

A posting by one of the affected end-users said that the Trojan's source is a pirated software package instead of the video/audio files that MediaDefender might attack. Typically, the Trojan enters a PC during the launch of the involved keygen program (a small file that crafts an authentic serial code for stimulating software).

Commenting on this issue, security specialists said that majority of trojans on affected systems typically remain unobtrusive so that users might not come to know that they are disclosing their confidential data or their PCs were being turned into zombies.

Traditionally, viruses are spread to attain nefarious objectives. But one like the BitTorrent Trojan giving a morality missive is rather uncommon, security specialists said.

Related article: NZ Researcher Uncovers Hacking Techniques Against Vista

» SPAMfighter News - 2/2/2009