G Data: file sharing services severely contaminated with viruses

The number of infected files in torrent networks has risen considerably

Bochum (Germany), September 4th, 2009 – G Data is warning of a current marked increase in infected files in peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing services. Since the beginning of the week, the percentage of infected files has almost tripled. According to analyses carried out by G Data Security Labs, a lot of malware is circulating in software warez, maps for navigation devices, ringer tones, videos, and music recordings. With a share of more than 90 percent, Torrentreactor.net clearly exceeds Torrent.to and The Pirate Bay when it comes to malware infections.

Torrents have firmly established themselves as the successors to classical file sharing services within the online community. The advantages are obvious: Thanks to distributed and decentralized data transfer, even large data quantities can be disseminated quickly across the globe. Moreover, the choice of offered legal software is enormous, as is that of warez. The number of daily users must consequently be very high, surely in the range of several million. Accordingly, it is attractive for criminals to use torrents to distribute malicious code and offer analogously prepared malware files.

Based on the malware statistics that G Data collects as part of its malware information initiative, the website http://www.torrentreactor.net is particularly worthy of mention as a source of malware. In the last three days alone, more than 2,400 occurrences where G Data has prevented infection of domains by malware from torrents have been reported to G Data Security Lab. By comparison, there were 9,400 reported malware files among file sharing services in the entire preceding month. Should this trend continue, a doubling can be anticipated for the current month via this infection path alone.

Ralf Benzmüller, manager of G Data Security Labs, warns, "Against the backdrop of the current figures, we can only warn all Internet users against using peer-to-peer and torrent downloads. Aside from any possible copyright problems associated with the downloading of warez, there is an increased risk that the downloads are infected with malware.

The following domains already stood out in August as particularly prevalent malware distributors:

Torrent name Number of registered domains
Torrent.to: 4076
Torrentreactor.net: 3456
ThePiratebay.org: 389
Bit-torrents.6x.to: 265

Information about torrent networks
Torrents are distributed, decentralized peer-to-peer networks, via which large quantities of data can be quickly distributed. Files are sent in separate distribution networks, so-called swarms. Precisely where the desired files are available is described in ".torrent files." For localization, platforms such as torrent.to, torrentreactor.net, and thepiratebay.org offer their users topical search functions and keyword searches for ".torrent files." Torrents are discredited just like P2P file sharing services because they are also misused for the distribution of warez. Consequently, legal use, e.g., by freeware publishers or Linux distributors, is seen in a bad light.

About G Data
G Data Software AG, with its head office in Bochum, is an innovative and quickly expanding software house focusing on IT security solutions. As a specialist in Internet security and pioneer in the field of virus protection, the company, founded in Bochum in 1985, developed the first antivirus program more than 20 years ago.

Over the last five years, no other European security software provider has won more national and international tests and awards than G Data. When it comes to quality, G Data is a world leader, combining the world's best security technologies in its products. Examples of this are its DoubleScan technology with two independent virus scanners and the OutbreakShield instant protection.

G Data security solutions are available worldwide in more than 40 countries.

More information about the company and the G Data Security solutions is available at www.gdatasoftware.com.

Editorial contact
Thorsten Urbanski
PR-Manager

Königsallee 178b
D-44799 Bochum, Germany
www.gdata.de

Tel.: +49 (0) 234 / 9762-0

This release was published on openPR.