From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Mar 28 2003 - 04:48:26 MST
--- Alfio Puglisi <puglisi@arcetri.astro.it> wrote:
> It's not so difficult to find those [Al-Jazeera]
> videos on the Net. Just fire up Kazaa, or eDonkey,
> or any decent P2P app, and search...
I'm sure that is so, but as you know I recently
suffered a serious breach of my computer security, and
while investigating it I learned that these P2P
networks are fraught with viruses, trojans, spyware
and other malware. They are the favorite hang-outs for
vandalistic script-kiddies with nothing better to do
than screw up other people's lives. In fact the full
version of Kazaa itself won't even run unless one
agrees to install certain (supposedly harmless)
spyware files.
For those who choose to use these P2P file-sharing
programs: I strongly recommend that every received
file be scanned with a high-quality updated virus
scanner *and* a good spyware/trojan detector. Even
then the protection is not guaranteed... there is
usually a window of time during which new malicious
files are spread via P2P before they are registered in
the updates from the anti-malware vendors.
My own recent security breach may have occurred as a
result of my previous membership in the Kazaa network.
I recall receiving a harmless-looking file that caused
my computer to behave erratically and then lock up.
I've since uninstalled Kazaa and all similar
file-sharing apps and reformatted. No more P2P for me,
thank you. It's not as though I can't afford to buy my
own music and software. As the saying goes, "Fool me
once, shame on you. But fool me twice, shame on me."
But I'm getting off-topic here... well, actually I'll
just change the topic...
-gts
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Mar 28 2003 - 04:57:54 MST