Learn why you should consider these as threats!
The sites that offer torrents, with the most diverse contents, are probably the most visited in worldwide. In addition to the obvious legal issues of potential infringements of the copyrights of musicians, filmmakers or software creators, there are also security issues associated with their download that can make us or our computer a target for cybercriminals. The first attack, documented in March 2016, began with the ransomware known as KeRanger. Despite the readiness shown by the creators of Transmission, who removed the compromised version of the app just hours after it appeared on the site, thousands of victims were still registered worldwide. This was also the case with the Sathurbot backdoor trojan, a threat registered by ESET investigators in April 2017. The affected devices were infected through malicious torrents and added to a botnet that searched for WordPress administrator accounts on the Internet. These accounts were later compromised with brute-force attacks. In February 2017, cybercriminals again compromised BitTorrent sites, this time to distribute a new ransomware called “Patcher”, which appeared to be an application to pirate software from Adobe and the tech giant Microsoft. But the torrent was actually ransomware encryption software. These are just a few of the examples of threats from the world of torrents and have become vectors of choice for cybercriminals to inflict large numbers of inexperienced users with malware or to gain access to their computers and use them for malicious purposes. So, what do you now think about this dangerous malware and threats? Simply share your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
