File-sharing Utilities Dangerously Infected with Malware

Security researchers at the G Data Security Labs have issued a warning that there is a steady and rising danger of malicious software dissemination via Torrent or the P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing facilities.

After a deep analysis of the malicious software installing technique, G Data has revealed in a report that plenty of malicious programs are circulating within software warez, videos, music recordings, ringer tones, and maps pertaining to navigation devices.

The report states that Torrents, infected by malware, have been emanating most notably from torrentreactor.net. Already the source witnessed 2,400 incidents within merely three days during the 1st week of September 2009. In contrast, there had been only 9,400 reported numbers of malicious files during the preceding month of August 2009. If this tendency persists, then malicious torrents in September 2009 would get double of August 2009 level, said G Data.

The security researchers said that Torrents had strongly placed themselves within the Internet community as successor of conventional file sharing utilities. The benefits of using Torrents are clear. For instance - with the availability of decentralized and distributed transfer of data, large volumes of data can be distributed fast to any place in the world. Furthermore, there is an enormous choice of legitimate software for offer, like in the case of warez.

Owing to this benefit (large data transfer), there must be a very high number (some millions) of regular users. Thus, it proves alluring for cyber criminals to utilize Torrents for the distribution of their malware.

Ralf Benzmuller, Manager of G Data Security Labs, said - based on the prevailing statistics, it is advisable that all users of the Internet avoid using Torrent and peer-to-peer downloads. He adds that in addition to any probable problems of copyright incidences in connection with the warez's downloading, there is also a high danger of downloading contaminated software, as reported by Computer Shopper on September 8, 2009.

Meanwhile, the security researchers said that the advice given was fair enough. It was extremely dangerous to download files via Torrent files or P2P networks both in terms of legal matters related to copyright coverage and in terms of downloading possible malicious files.

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» SPAMfighter News - 9/25/2009