A Warning To All Downloaders

It seems recently that a minority of people find it clever to hide and upload Viruses and Trojans within their Torrents.
Why they do this, is anyones guess but to go out and deliberately try and infect other peoples computers with all sorts of damaging rubbish is beyond me.
Even the most careful of people are being caught out and getting untold misery forced upon them, when they try and recover from unwanted extras.
We may never stop the few that are spoiling it for everyone else but by taking some precautions we can try and minimise the chances.
Let us all try and put a stop to the kicks these wasters are getting at our expense.

Some simple precautions we should all take -

- Make sure you are running an Anti-Virus programme and that it's up to date with the most recent databases.
- It's also a good idea to have a Spyware/Malware programme running and also up to date.
- Weekly scans of your WHOLE computer with the above two are recommended.
- Be careful what you download. Try and use trusted sites and try and use only well known uploaders.
- Always read any comments left by other downloaders where available. They'll be the first to tell you of any problems.
- Be extra careful of any Torrents that are archived. Anything that's Zipped/Rar'd may be hiding something else, rather than saving bandwidth.
- The worst things in my experience to include extra nasties tends to be Apps and Games. Movies tend to get hit more by fakes but still, be carefull.
- Posts including Keygens should be watched out for. Keygens seem to be the favourite hiding place of untold misery. So again, be extra careful.
- Exe files - I can't reiterate how dangerous these can be. They can be the easy install method of many programmes without fault but they can be as equally dangerous. These tend to be the easiest way to get that virus/trojan into your machine. If your download contains more than one, chances are, there's trouble in store. Movies and Music should in reality, never come with ANY Exe files or other self running files for that matter. NEVER run these extra files.....NEVER......For any other format downloads, Games or Apps...etc.....Look out for Exe files that don't correspond to what you're downloading. If the start names of these files doesn't correspond to the name of what you're downloading, it's time to get suspicious.

If you can, please post if you find the download can be trusted, fully working and virus/trojan free and obviously definitely post if you find unwanted extras included. This alerts others to possible problems and allows staff to remove the offending articles.


The above list can be endless but these are just a few pointers and reminders on how to best protect ourselves.

Remember - Prevention IS easier than the cure

thanks i know i have come across them

thanks for the advice, i'm seeing a lot of mp3 files also being spotted with virii just now, so needless to say i check every one i download too, although most of mine have come through the torrent software itself but no doubt they will or are finding there way onto sites like these sooner or later, thanx again



BTW, im using avg 8 which is what is spotting these virii in mp3s

Willie

This post has been edited by satansmaster: Nov 18 2008, 09:28 PM

Thanks for that, lets hope that we don't get any from a torrent found on file soup

I don't use a PC but this is great. Thanks for posting this wng.

thx alot follow human.
those people ouoght to be gang raped by the opposite sex and castrated or sorn up for life !!!