Ivan the "Terrible Bit Torrent"

Well - must I stress the obvious concerns with Bit Torrent websites? OK I will...

Bit Torrent is an excuse to download copied software and save lots of money! Pirate Bay is a perfect example of this. Italian ISPs have attempted to block this Bit Torrent but well you guessed, hacker jo managed to redirect to an OpenDNS - and yeap that was that! Everyone was back downloading... Yippy for the Terrible Torrents - I don't think so!

The Bit Torrent is the 'Good, Bad and the Ugly' of the internet for me. Yes I'ved used them - who hasn't? My computer has spent the best part of a day and a half downloading some software (from a seed - someone who has the complete copy of that file), chewing my bandwidth and driving me personally mad ;(

I'd been looking for 'that' software for sometime and jumped on the Torrent bandwagon - and hey presto I had what I wanted. This happened 3 years ago before I started IDTP. Since, I've not used them. Why? Simple really - At the time I couldn't verify that the file didn't contain some malicious code. In fact it did contain some nasty code - it wrecked my computers performance, dropped some spyware on for good measure and destroyed by Outlook .pst file. Nasty!

200 GBP later I had restored my .pst file but my poorly computer just wouldn't have any of it and refused to start one day. Off my computer went to my tech mate for a rebuild for a small cost of 100 GBP and 300 GBP's later I had my computer back. Phew!

How many cybersurfers know what the risks are of downloading from Bit Torrent websites? My guess - only a few, especially when you can save money by having someone elses copy. People always put 'savings' and having a 'copy' ahead of worrying about what may be contained in a download file. How many of you have noticed on these Bit Torrents the different file sizes (even when zipped) for the same software????

My final word of caution - tech savvy cybersurfers know all about the threats - my main concern are those that do not fully understand what a Bit Torrent is and how it works - which is pretty much most people on this planet. If you don't understand the risks how are you expected to protect yourself? Don't be like me 3 years ago - spending 300 GBP on repairing my computer - luckily I'm one person now who knows a thing or two about internet safety. Happy days!

Safe surfing folks!
Cheers
Julian