Bit'Torrent and Spyware ?

BitTorrent users beware, your download may include adware and spyware.

Purveyors of the applications that pop up ads on PC screens and track browsing habits have discovered BitTorrent as a new distribution channel. According to observers of the trend, videos and music that hide adware and spyware are increasingly being offered for download on various BitTorrent Web sites.

BitTorrent has grown into one of the most widely used means of downloading files such as movies or software. Unlike peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa, eDonkey or the original Napster, no central search technology exists for BitTorrent. Instead, links to specific files are posted on Web sites.

While applications such as Kazaa have long been associated with adware and spyware, BitTorrent has not. Until now, that is. Chris Boyd, a security researcher who runs the Vital Security Web site, found adware and spyware hiding in BitTorrent files.

In one case, an episode of the Fox TV show "Family Guy" was bundled with several pieces of known adware, according to Boyd. "Under that kind of load, a midrange PC can easily go under," Boyd said. Both spyware and adware are known to hurt PC performance because they use PC resources to run.

In other examples, music files and porn videos came bundled with adware or spyware, Boyd said in an e-mail interview. He suspects that online marketers have launched campaigns to get their software installed on more desktops using BitTorrent.


Link : http://news.zdnet.com/Spyware+and+ad...&subj=technews

this only happens when you use public trackers. allowing this gives a public tracker a bad name so I dont think they 'allowed' it and will remove if they find out a torrent includes BS

it usually takes a while to take it off, i still miss suprnova :cry:

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Originally Posted by maebach

it usually takes a while to take it off, i still miss suprnova :cry:

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How can you miss suprnova? it was the tracker with the slowest speeds, most mislabeled files and password protected archives.

Unlucky you then, they always maxed out my 453 kb\secs and I never hit a PWd archive that did not include the PW in brackets in the filename.

I'd agree ^ Suprnova was amazing while it lasted ...torrentspy is the only site I now use which is decent, but limited files and slow speeds for most part.

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Originally Posted by {I}{K}{E}

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Originally Posted by maebach

it usually takes a while to take it off, i still miss suprnova :cry:

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How can you miss suprnova? it was the tracker with the slowest speeds, most mislabeled files and password protected archives.

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Sure they were mislabeled, but the speeds were about the same of any private tracker. It worked pretty much the same. New torrents had lots of seeds/leechers and therefore had high speeds. Nothing will ever surpass Suprnova, you could get any software, book, ore anything like that, that you wanted. With private trackers, things are deleted, and you can never get anything that is a older than a few months.

Oooh, im so scared. Im shaking in my little space boots.


One just needs to be awake and alert.
That should be the Default whilst on the intarweb.

:D