Last summer, many of those who used file sharing technologies such as Kazaa were rudely awakened to the reality of the threat of online viruses and trojans. Today, Wired News reported that, based on research by Bruce Hughes, director of malicious code research at security firm TruSecure, forty five percent of files downloaded using Kazaa contain code that is damaging or malicious.
Types of nefarious executables that could be hidden in Kazaa shared files include programs that steal passwords, re-direct home pages, take control of users' PCs, send spam from users' address to people in their address books and other bad things. With over 3 million users of this technology, it's not surprising that these viruses and trojans are spreading at unheard of rates.
The article did contain some good news, though. Virus protection is available and it is mostly effective in curbing the spread of these deviant downloads.
"Hughes said that 80 to 95 percent of the malicious code on Kazaa can be detected with anti-virus software, depending on the detection program. But he said that people often don't update their software with current virus definitions."
Practice safe computing--Install virus protection and keep your virus definitions up to date!
