McAfee’s free diagnostic tool Security Scan Plus is currently branding several file-sharing related sites and services (The Pirate Bay included) as “harmful.”

Interestingly, McAfee’s tool is not very consistent. The Pirate Bay stopped being a threat when we performed a new scan, with Torrentz.eu and Kat.ph taking its place. When we pushed the “scan again” button once more ThePirateBay.org reappeared together with PirateProxy.net.

Adding to the already confusing results, it’s also quite odd that only The Pirate Bay’s former .org domain is listed, as this currently acts as little more than a redirect to the newer .sx domain name.

Security Scan Plus is not much more that a marketing vehicle to get people to buy McAfee products, so perhaps we shouldn’t expect too much from it. That said, it would be helpful to get some additional information on why these sites are classified as security threats.

One option could be that these sites work with suspicious ad networks. However, this doesn’t apply to BTGuard, a BitTorrent proxy and VPN provider that doesn’t have any advertising on its website.

We assume that McAfee pulls the threat data from its SiteAdvisor tool. Here ThePirateBay.org is categorized as “Potential Illegal Software,” the same label as many other torrent sites.

BTGuard is even more dangerous according to the security company, but no additional information other than categorizing the site as “Potential Illegal Software, Anonymizers” is offered.

The above isn’t exactly promising for the new anti-piracy tool the company is developing to extend its SiteAdvisor service. Earlier McAfee submitted a patent for a system that can detect and block pirated material from any website and present users with authorized and legal alternatives.

By preventing people from inadvertently visiting pirate websites, McAfee hopes that the technology will educate consumers on how to make the right choices when looking for entertainment online.

Unfortunately, at the moment McAfee is mostly showing how inaccurate classification systems can lead to overblocking.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Anyone familiar with Internet piracy in the 90s will be aware of the perils of crack sites. They weren’t selling the potent cocaine derivative of course, but a promise that the download of a small program would unleash the full potential of a previously restricted software package.

The lure of free software dangled by these sites proved too great for millions of Internet users. They naively entered crack portals but often didn’t make it out unscathed after being tricked into installing viruses, keyloggers and other malware on their machines.

The bad news is that 20 years on and delivery mechanisms aside, not a lot has changed.

“Cybercriminals consistently take advantage of consumer interest around award shows, new movies and TV shows as well as the latest cultural trends driven by celebrities,” McAfee reveals in its latest annual malware study.

“These criminals capitalize on the public’s fascination with celebrity to lure them to sites laden with malware that enables them to steal passwords and personal information. This year, searching for a celebrity name coupled with the search terms ‘free app download’ and ‘nude pictures’ resulted in the highest instances of malware-laden sites.”

McAfee offers some tips to stay safe, some which are particularly useful for novice torrent users faced with downloads that claim to need other software installed in order to play.

“Beware of content that prompts you to download anything before providing you the content,” the security company warns. “Don’t download videos from suspect sites. This should be common sense, but it bears repeating: don’t download anything from a website you don’t trust — especially video. Most news clips you’d want to see can easily be found on official video sites, and don’t require you to download anything.”

The McAfee report can be downloaded here.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Thus far these efforts have been in vain, but anti-virus vendor McAfee has now presented a technology that will please rightholders. A new patent published by the California-based company describes a system that can prevent users from accessing pirate content.

Titled “Detect and prevent illegal consumption of content on the internet,” the patent covers a blocklist-type system that can either warn consumers, completely block access to web pages, or offer purchasing advice.

The flow-chart below shows the various steps involved.

According to McAfee there are many reasons for consumers and corporations to be concerned with the downloading of illegal content, ranging from legal risks to malware and virus threats.

“One major reason for concern is possible violation of an Intellectual Property right and the potential cost ramifications associated with such a violation,” the company explains.

“A second major concern could relate to potential threats cause by some unauthorized distributions. For example, it is not uncommon for an unauthorized distribution of material on the Internet to include malicious material.”

McAfee presents their solution as an extension to its widely used SiteAdvisor tool, targeted at both individual consumers and business clients. Threats can be detected in search engines where pirate results get a warning label, but also on social networks including Facebook.

In addition to blocking access to pirated content the technology also has the capability to point users to legal alternative sources for the same, or similar content.

“By informing a user of illegal sources and possible alternatives, a user can obtain the desired electronic distribution without violating an author’s intellectual property rights,” McAfee writes.

Those who click on a pirate link will be pointed to a new screen where users can learn more about the warning. Depending on how the software is set up users may then take the risk and click through to the site. This is similar to how Google, Firefox and other online services already respond to links pointing to malware threats.

By preventing people from inadvertently visiting pirate websites, McAfee hopes that the technology will educate consumers on how to make the right choices when looking for entertainment online.

Whether there are any concrete plans to roll out the system is unknown at this point. The most likely option is that it will be added to McAfee’s existing security products.

If so, we can expect copyright holders to push for a wide adoption of the software.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.