P2P gives you viruses

Billed as an 'exclusive' news item, hacks working for the television company turned on a computer and downloaded three P2P programs. They searched few free music sites and downloaded some torrents and left the PC running to see what they got.

Since it was telly, useful information such as what the hacks did was not reported. However 7News claimed that the Kazaa, Bit Torrent and Limewire gave them "suspect files" and some nasty spyware.

One of the claims the telly program made was that the Limeware P2P program installed a password cracker. However, the base program contains no such code, so we wonder where 7News downloaded its code from.

The other thing that 7News had problems with were loads of pop-ups which apparently drove them to sites which downloaded more suspect files. So they didn't run any pop-up blocker on their browsers. Then, because we all do this apparently, the hacks turned off the firewall and virus checker because it was a "common and often hidden vulnerability caused by expired and outdated software or clicking on deceptive popups".

Surprisingly enough they were flooded with Trojan horses and viruses and lost control of their computer in 13 hours.

The telly people said that with three file sharing programs, 13 hours on the Internet and "contact from computer users in 45 different countries transformed a brand new out-of-the-box computer into a potential tool for unknown predators".

Of course the fact that they downloaded their software from dodgy sites, visited illegal music sites with an insecure browser and turned off their security gear has nothing to do with it. It must be because of the P2P software.

Most boggers think that the story is written as a press release for the RIAA, and has all the credibly of a doctor who insists that "masturbation makes you go blind".

More here. µ