Kazaa Delivers More Than Tunes [45% of Files have Virus]

Wired News ^ | 1/9/04 | Kim Zetter

[freedom44]

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.

[wimpycat]

Kazaa may look clean, but...

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[metalcor]

Kazaa is a virus if you ask me. But I wonder if this guy was giving interviews from his office at RIAA headquarters? The title says 45% of files have virus, but the body of the story says he only tested .exe files. That calls into question anything else in the story. You deserve a virus if you download executable files.

[wallcrawlr]

brings back memories of the old school days of napster...ahhh the memories

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

wouldnt Norton AV or a program like "Search and Destroy" catch these things?

[sweetliberty]

Ping!

[Paul C. Jesup]

I wonder when someone will get really creative and hack the backdoor programs that are installed with Kazaa.

[ezo4]

they do..... I catch them all the time. But some still get through

[EggsAckley]

Kazaa is a virus

Ya got that right!! Last Spring, my son's wife downloaded some Kazaa crap and then the klez virus got to me through them. It destroyed my computer. I actually bought a new comp because it would be so costly to have the '98 purged of it. He did too.

No more Kazaa at THIER house!

[mikenola]

Most of what people download from Kazaa poses no threat, in that they are non-executable (MP3s, AVIs, etc).

However, if you download software, you should have an industrial-strength condom on your PC.

I've found that downloading any type of security software (firewall, AV software) is just asking for trouble.

Stick to non-executable and you'll be OK.

[Tax-chick]

wouldnt Norton AV or a program like "Search and Destroy" catch these things?

Not if your teenagers have disabled the anti-virus software!

[TankerKC]

Pure BS.

[wimpycat]

I don't know anything about Kazaa or Napster. I had a slow computer and slow dial-up connection when Napster was around, and I'm not allowed to download music I didn't pay for. My husband has a major pet-peeve against it.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

whats pure BS?

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

poor girl...your missing out on alot needless to say

porn, music, videos, games, pixs, any kind of application you'd want

[cyborg]

I have kazaa lite. My sister has regular Kazaa and its a nightmare. I also have a hard drive scrubber that I use to delete any .dat files or anything that can't be deleted the regular way.

[AAABEST]

This is a very misleading title. 45% of executables have viruses. No music files are executables and a very small percentage of files of all types downloaded are .exe.

Please try not to put out misinformation, unless you're getting paid by the recording industry.

[AAABEST]

See # 18

[Capt. Tom]

It destroyed my computer. I actually bought a new comp because it would be so costly to have the '98 purged of it.

One of the nastiest, IMHO is when a program is inserted that tells the computer when it is ordered to start up "to shut down." Basically shut down, means shut down and start up means shut down.

This virus can sit in a computer for months. When a person restarts his computer as directed for a legitimate program to be effective the computer won't reboot. Also a person shuts down and goes on vacation and comes home and can't restart his computer.

Usually hardware gets the blame first, and it takes awhile to know what happened. I would imagine a few good computers got junked because of the malicious program. -Tom