Posts Tagged ‘bittorrent’

The BBC reports that a phishing scam involving torrents has been uncovered. Their headline implies that it targets Twitter.

It doesn’t, not specifically. Twitter seems to have been responsible for revealing it.

The way it worked was really quite clever.

After “doing some digging” the firm (Twitter) found a network of compromised torrent sites that had been set up with the sole aim of stealing logon information.

“It appears that for a number of years, a person has been creating torrent sites that require a login and password as well as creating forums set up for torrent site usage and then selling these purportedly well-crafted sites and forums to other people innocently looking to start a download site of their very own,” said the firm.

The sites also contained security exploits allowing the person to steal usernames and passwords.

After a while, the malware would phone home with the list of usernames and passwords. The plan relied on the tendency of persons to use the same password for multiple sites; the phisher would then try the torrent passwords on other sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

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While listening to a story about the Pirate Bay verdict yesterday evening, I started to wonder where the entertainment industry gets its estimates of “lost revenue due to file sharing.” One of the witnesses for the recording industry testifying in the Pirate Bay case said that file sharing costs the recording industry “billions.”

I am certain that the number is inflated. More than that, I would bet two of my computers that there is a knowingly flawed assumption behind it. Why? It is to the entertainment industry’s PR interest to make itself out to be the poor victims here, even as they fly to the trials in their private jets.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (22.3MB)

That’s great, it started with video tapes, movies in the home at 8, Lenny Bruce is still not afraid. I remember when we got our first VCR. It was a Betamax and we had some of the coolest movies. Of course, the Beta went the way of the do do bird. Then it was VHS. Come and almost gone.

Now it’s the DVDs turn. Earlier in the year the big question was “Who was going to replace DVD’s: HD DVD or Blu-Ray?” Now we know that answer – but does it matter? Blu-Ray players really haven’t been selling like hotcakes and if you have one, you know that it’s not the fastest thing on the planet. The ultimate irony is that Sony owned Beta and lost to VHS. Now Sony won with Blu-Ray, but will that only be a small win as alternate formats are entering into the market?

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.1MB)

Podcast (quickcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:33 — 2.1MB)

User wanted to know if downloading a piece of software with an unlock key from Bittorrent is safe or recommended. We talked about illegal software, antivirus and what downloading can mean in the long run.