[Channeal]

Our son and daughter-in-law have been staying with us over Christmas/New Year. They brought with them some movies for us all to watch on our tv via memory stick, but there were some problems as one was in the wrong format, another was actually in Bulgarian!

Our son knows that we never download movies or anything.... but on this occasion I agreed last night that they could do it on our computer. I did however panic a bit when I noticed the word torrent on what they were using to download the movies. I have a very vague memory that I read somewhere (quite possibly on this forum) that it was very risky to use a torrent.

I actually do not even know what a torrent is! Please can anybody here tell me whether it is really unsafe to use one - and if there are any particular steps I can take if this situation ever occurs again.

Btw, our computer seems to have survived the experience and we really enjoyed watching the movies last night! :-)

Thank you,
Chris.

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Hi Chris,

The use of "torrents" can be a potential minefield I'm afraid.

 

There is nothing inherently wrong with torrents from a technical perspective, but unfortunately bad people will often "spike" files  with malicious code that are downloaded using torrents and that is a major vector for the distribution of viruses, Worms Trojan Horse infections and a whole host of other nasty stuff. These bad people use  "spiked files in a way similar to that used  by bad people in bars or nightclubs that may attempt to spike someone's drink in an effort to take advantage of them.

 

Torrents will sometimes seem an attractive way to download movies or music files or software files without having to pay for them!, but often they come from unknown sources with questionable provenance, including those that may have legal consequences or infringe copyright etc.

 

I'm sure that your son and daughter in law would be horrified to hear that they may have inadvertently worried you, but the whole subject of torrents is a potential minefield and I think it would be wise for you to uninstall any programs/applications that may have been installed for using torrents and delete any files downloaded via them ( unless 100% sure of their provenance.)

 

So perilous is the situation with a lot of torrents, that our Terms of Use for this site forbid us to discuss them on our forums apart from their removal..

 

Here is a link that may provide you with more information:

 

https://www.fbi.gov/...fety/peertopeer

 

If you would like to have your computer checked for malicious code then open a new topic in the Virus and Spyware removal forum and provide a link to your topic here.

 

Please don't be unduly alarmed, but it would be best to uninstall them and steer clear of them for the future.

Regards

paws

[paws]

Hi Chris,

The use of "torrents" can be a potential minefield I'm afraid.

 

There is nothing inherently wrong with torrents from a technical perspective, but unfortunately bad people will often "spike" files  with malicious code that are downloaded using torrents and that is a major vector for the distribution of viruses, Worms Trojan Horse infections and a whole host of other nasty stuff. These bad people use  "spiked files in a way similar to that used  by bad people in bars or nightclubs that may attempt to spike someone's drink in an effort to take advantage of them.

 

Torrents will sometimes seem an attractive way to download movies or music files or software files without having to pay for them!, but often they come from unknown sources with questionable provenance, including those that may have legal consequences or infringe copyright etc.

 

I'm sure that your son and daughter in law would be horrified to hear that they may have inadvertently worried you, but the whole subject of torrents is a potential minefield and I think it would be wise for you to uninstall any programs/applications that may have been installed for using torrents and delete any files downloaded via them ( unless 100% sure of their provenance.)

 

So perilous is the situation with a lot of torrents, that our Terms of Use for this site forbid us to discuss them on our forums apart from their removal..

 

Here is a link that may provide you with more information:

 

https://www.fbi.gov/...fety/peertopeer

 

If you would like to have your computer checked for malicious code then open a new topic in the Virus and Spyware removal forum and provide a link to your topic here.

 

Please don't be unduly alarmed, but it would be best to uninstall them and steer clear of them for the future.

Regards

paws

[Channeal]

Oh yikes! That does sound quite scary, if you are not even allowed the discuss it here!

My son and daughter-in-law are still here, but will run some checks as soon as they are gone, I guess!

Hopefully, they won't ask me to do this on any other occasion.... but if they do, then I will have to say 'no'.

Many thanks for your help.
Chris.

[paws]

You are very welcome, and a polite, "No thanks" to any more such downloads would be a wise step.

Regards

paws

[Channeal]

My visitors have left and I have deleted everything and am running a check for viruses and malware now. Hopefully all will be well.

Thanks again,
Chris

[paws]