Earlier today, the websites of BitTorrent Inc. (utorrent.com and bittorrent.com) were hacked. In what would seem (but isn’t) to be a vindication of the many ‘studies‘ equating P2P with malware, downloads of the torrent clients µTorrent and BitTorrent (aka mainline) were replaced with malware downloads. Shortly after this had happened, BitTorrent Inc. took the servers [...]
A few hours ago, certain sections of The Pirate Bay were flagged by Google as containing malware and were subsequently blocked. Similar warnings are being shown by Firefox, which states that the world’s largest tracker is an “attack site”. The Pirate Bay team are working on the problem now.
A new BitTorrent site has appeared which will allow scammers and spammers to infect its users with spyware, malware and viruses. An admin of TrafficLoader.com says that no bad torrents will ever be removed from the site and is inviting people to upload malicious software to infect torrent users.
Described as “One of the most prevalent pieces of malware in the last three years,” the Downloader-UA.h trojan is running wild on P2P networks. But thanks to its system strength – and the work of torrent site moderators – such outbreaks are shrugged off by BitTorrent.
Internet connection and hardware aside, everything the file-sharer needs to share files comes free of charge – clients, media players, everything is free – so BitTorrent users beware: If you find yourself being asked to use your cellphone to ‘unlock’ something you downloaded, you are being scammed!
The best torrent software clients like uTorrent or Azureus are free, no strings attached. However, some companies are making money tricking novice users into installing bad clients, bad media players and even bad Winzip-like software. We expose them and their badware and show you how to block them.
The popularity of BitTorrent also has its downsides. Over the past months we reported about fake torrents, torrents that force you to download malware, and torrents that spy on your download behavior. TorrentSpam is a new service that allows you to report such scams, and clean up BitTorrent sites, bit by bit.
The latest news from around the web, not covered on the frontpage
For years the RIAA has tried to convince the world that piracy is killing musicians. Supported...
RUTracker, Russia’s largest BitTorrent tracker, has been dealing with the effects of a DDoS attack over...
A coalition of 70 groups, including Reddit and WordPress, are asking Congress to stop working on...
In the aftermath of the MegaUpload shutdown, file-hosting sites continue to change their services. After Uploaded.to,...
In the wake of the Megaupload raids and attacks on domains in the US and elsewhere,...
Below are TorrentFreak's most discussed articles of the past month. Join the discussion if you like.
Left Quote“The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.
Peter Sunde Left Quote
A selection of some TorrentFreak's classics dug up from our archives.
Continuing a long-standing New Year's tradition, we present an up-to-date list of the world's most visited...
Privacy is important on the Internet, and BitTorrent users are certainly not excluded. Already, hundreds of...
With anti-piracy outfits and dubious law-firms policing BitTorrent swarms at an increasing rate, many Bittorrent users...
With the entertainment industries lobbying for increased powers to spy on BitTorrent users, many downloaders are...
BitTorrent can be fun, as long as you get decent speeds. Not satisfied with your current...