Kazaa Delivers More Than Tunes

[collideous]

Forty-five percent of the executable files downloaded through Kazaa, the most popular file-sharing program, contain malicious code like viruses and Trojan horses, according to a new study.

Out of 4,778 files downloaded in one month, Bruce Hughes, director of malicious code research at security firm TruSecure, found that nearly half of them contained various types of nefarious code.

The full article at Wired News (http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61852,00.html). So kids, always keep your virus definitions up to date and scan everything you download.

[shawners]

Yeah, especially if you use kazaa... Any program you use that shares more then mp3's.. will have virus and malicious codes..

[ducttapeBigSexy]

One of the main reasons I perfer open-source software over the software in Kazaa - sure, it might not but quite as nice or easy to use, but there aren't any viruses...

[Malicious Intent]

Muahahahaha!

[Wolfie]

Not to mention getting spyware on top of all of that if ya are using the regular kazaa, lol.

[CTC Command]

If I were someone who wanted to write and spread viruses (which I am not), methinks the best place to do it would on a place like KaZaa--what are people who get infected going to do, run to the police and cry "This software I stole off the internet wiped out my hard drive!"

The stupidity of some people never fails to amaze me...

[WRFan]

total nonsense. I've got millions of files from kazaa and only one of them was a virus. so what? I noticed right away that it had the extension vbs and didn't execute it, deleted it right away. antivirus programmes just eat cpu power and are completely useless. I don't use them and haven't had even a single virus in the last 8 years.

[The Hunter]

With the present speed of CPUs complaining about a basic virus scanner is not really valid. If you want to have sex without a condom thats fine for you, but for the average user, a virus scanner is nothing but a big plus. If only for the fact that it helps to prevent infected files from being shared.

[notbob]

total nonsense. I've got millions of files from kazaa and only one of them was a virus. so what? I noticed right away that it had the extension vbs and didn't execute it, deleted it right away. antivirus programmes just eat cpu power and are completely useless. I don't use them and haven't had even a single virus in the last 8 years.

WOW!

millions? you either have a kickass connection, or you downloaded a lot of 40k virus files

[endersgame21]

WOW!

millions? you either have a kickass connection, or you downloaded a lot of 40k virus files
Yea and he must either have a lot of big harddrives or his recycle bin is being visited often......or he downloaded a lot of 40k virus files.

[muffenme]

:fire

If you don't want a antivirus program on your computer just download what ever exe, rar, zip, etc then use an online scanner that you think would do the job. Delete any file(s) that has something wrong with it, like a virus.

:hole

[MonkeyMadness]

My two cents:

1.) Yes, always run a virus scanner. The only way I could see not doing this, is if every software you install is either shrinkwrapped or scanned by someone else, and if you then do not hook that machine up to the net. There are too many other ways to get a virus or trojan, like stupid VBS stuff sent to good ole' outlook, or ActiveX exploits, or just a good old pop-up window that fools you into clicking. AVG is an excellent virus scanner, and its free for personal use. Really free, like, legally free :P It is also far more stable and is far less of a resource hog then Mcafee or Norton. In my not so humble personal opinion, that is. I find that the most recent version does not noticably slow down even my old spare P-200 system. The big M and big N, tho, will make a noticable performance dent even in systems 2 or 3 times as fast.

2.) If you're downloading executable files off of the Fasttrack network (or anywhere else for that matter), use common sense. Not even the best scanner can catch everything, especially a stupid simple trojan that just deletes c:\windows when it is run. Don't run a .VBS or .SCR anything, period. Don't run anything that says "run this to get free porn". Don't run anything sent to you unsolicited. Don't run a .EXE that is supposed to be a movie or music. Movies come in .AVI, .MOV, .MPEG, and unfortunately the occasional RealVideo file. If you're downloading software, scan the .EXE (your virus scanner should do this immediately when the file is accessed if its set up properly, anyway) and use common sense. For instance, if its supposed to be a full installation of some huge software suite, and its only a ~200K file, you're a click away from trouble. If its suspicious, just delete it, you're not losing anything, after all you didn't pay for it!

[Kevin06906]

Anti Virus? I have anti viruses i have trojan removers...about like 3 of them.

I'm all set.

But I'm always careful with files other than music.

[fireforce555]

I dont run a realtime scanner, my machine is WAY underpowered for that. But everything I get off kazaa is scanned with up to date defs before its opened. But I dont download programs either, to many of my friends got burned that way. Especially the "keygens" or "cracks". They are like 99% viruses.

[Omyn]

My friend infected the whole lan party last time he executed a keygen he received from a p2p app.

We were sitting down, all of a sudden the server shut off, and only a few people could access the network.

He had to go home, pick up his backup disk, reinstall windows, put on norton, and then be called virus boy every time he visited another LAN.

Luckily there were norton disks for all :]

[Lehk]

*NEVER* use a crack/keygen off of P2P, use a reliable web site (mods, are we allowed to post links to cracks sites? to be safe i won't post the site i use unless it is ok'd by a mod)

[Malicious Intent]

No you can't Lehk, but you could PM it to me ;-)

[lexy23]

I just read an interesting article about Kazaa and was surprised to find it was included in the mydoom worm.

http://www.brendastardom.com/arch.asp?ArchID=345

[Kyle06]

total nonsense. I've got millions of files from kazaa and only one of them was a virus. so what? I noticed right away that it had the extension vbs and didn't execute it, deleted it right away. antivirus programmes just eat cpu power and are completely useless. I don't use them and haven't had even a single virus in the last 8 years.


wow I thought I was bad

[RACKnRAIL]

Forty-five percent of the executable files downloaded through Kazaa, the most popular file-sharing program, contain malicious code like viruses and Trojan horses, according to a new study.

Out of 4,778 files downloaded in one month, Bruce Hughes, director of malicious code research at security firm TruSecure, found that nearly half of them contained various types of nefarious code.

The full article at Wired News (http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61852,00.html). So kids, always keep your virus definitions up to date and scan everything you download.

That's RIAA propaganda, I say!

I never use Kazaa for .exe files anyway. There are so many better apps for that.