File-Sharing Frenzy Sparked by Pirate Bay Closure
File-Sharing Frenzy Sparked by Pirate Bay Closure
November 3, 2009
" The number of file-sharing sites soared 300-percent when The Pirate Bay went offline.
McAfee announced yesterday that the temporary closing of the Pirate Bay inadvertently skyrocketed the number of file-sharing sites by 300-percent. The company also said that cybercriminals are creating fake websites used to trick users into hunting down copyrighted material, only leading them to download malicious programs. McAfee expects the number of malicious sites to grow during the fall and holiday season.
"Many of these sites sprang up to scam users of The Pirate Bay who were looking for a new place to download copyrighted material," the company reports. "McAfee researchers observed that users began creating their own sites to support The Pirate Bay community when the site was in the process of being shut down. When the site was back up after only 24 hours, the new torrent sites disappeared quickly."
McAfee has also discovered "peaks" in the creation of file-sharing websites, correlating with major events in the film industry. The summer usually brings an extremely high point--the Oscar Season and holiday movie season also provide huge peaks in file sharing. However, The Pirate Bay had a huge influence in the file-sharing network as seen when the site temporarily went down, with many file sharers grabbing the Pirate Bay index just days before it went offline.
"The Pirate Bay example shows how difficult it is to 'stop' data once it is on the web," McAfee's report says. "A website can be shut down, but anyone who has accessed the content may still be able to redistribute it." "
:source: Source: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Pirate-B...news-5022.html:view: Homepage: http://www.tomsguide.com/us
