Pirates new movie being held for ransom?

[Aristo-cat]

Whoa!

http://www.ibtimes.com/disney-hacked-new-pirates-caribbean-movie-reportedly-held-ransom-2539303

 

[jknezek]

Whoa!

http://www.ibtimes.com/disney-hacked-new-pirates-caribbean-movie-reportedly-held-ransom-2539303

Let them have it. It'll cut into ticket sales in China and developing nations, which isn't insignificant, but very few people in the U.S. or western democracies will download it. Using one of those bit torrent services is asking to be hacked yourself, so you save money not going to the movie theater then spend 10 or 100x more fixing your hacked computer or paying a ransom on your own computer. If they put it on a straight web service it can be shut down in minutes. Honestly, if they stop paying ransoms fewer movies will get stolen as there won't be a payoff.

 

[Aristo-cat]

True, I had no idea this type thing was well- a thing. Smh.

The irony, the Pirates have been pirated.

 

[mikepizzo]

Let them have it. It'll cut into ticket sales in China and developing nations, which isn't insignificant, but very few people in the U.S. or western democracies will download it. Using one of those bit torrent services is asking to be hacked yourself, so you save money not going to the movie theater then spend 10 or 100x more fixing your hacked computer or paying a ransom on your own computer. If they put it on a straight web service it can be shut down in minutes. Honestly, if they stop paying ransoms fewer movies will get stolen as there won't be a payoff.

That statement is, honestly, grossly misinformed. There are cyber security dangers no matter what you do online. Anecdotally, I would argue that you're more likely to have your information stolen through a simple phishing email versus using bit torrents.

 

[jknezek]

That statement is, honestly, grossly misinformed. There are cyber security dangers no matter what you do online. Anecdotally, I would argue that you're more likely to have your information stolen through a simple phishing email versus using bit torrents.

There are more people that get phishing emails than bit torrents, so you are probably correct. Plus, there are a lot of people that have email and barely understand the concept of hacking. That being said, bit torrents are notorious for hacking issues. That cannot be denied and is not a misinformed opinion. Especially the bit torrents that host people willing to host stolen movies...

This isn't exactly the best source, but the information on torrents is commonly available from many sources to people that want to look:

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme...lient-could-help-hackers-hijack-your-computer

 

[mikepizzo]

There are more people that get phishing emails than bit torrents, so you are probably correct. Plus, there are a lot of people that have email and barely understand the concept of hacking. That being said, bit torrents are notorious for hacking issues. That cannot be denied and is not a misinformed opinion. Especially the bit torrents that host people willing to host stolen movies...

This isn't exactly the best source, but the information on torrents is commonly available from many sources to people that want to look:

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme...lient-could-help-hackers-hijack-your-computer

You're either mixing up your terms or you don't understand them. From your first sentence, I suggest the latter. One doesn't "get a bit torrent", one downloads a torrent file using a torrent client.

The article you linked was about an exploit that existed in multiple bit torrent clients that basically allowed an attacker to use one's traffic towards a DDoS attack. It literally says:

It’s not a “hack,” since nothing was unlawful accessed, but a well aimed and timed DDoS attack can be devastating to complex organizations like corporations and governments.

The attacker isn't accessing the users information, they are just using the users traffic towards a DDoS. Completely different. One user on that pages summed up DDoS pretty well (threw it in a spoiler tag because it's quite long):

Spoiler: Quote

A DDoS attack varies from irritating to quite a large problem, depending on the scale of the attack and what is being attacked.

DDoS attacks are intended to lock up their targets with garbage traffic such that they can no longer function (dealing with too much load). So for governments and things, an attack might be knocking their public website offline (annoying but probably not essential) or disrupting their more important internet-facing systems, such as those coordinating defence (if there are any, we're speculating here) or other important services.

DDoS is more of a problem for corporations, who seem to be the target more often than not. Microsoft and Sony for example are regularly beset with DDoS attacks on their multiplayer gaming services for their games consoles. Such attacks will slow or even completely break the service for their users.

DDoS attacks are fairly temporary, since the effect on the target only really lasts as long as the attack is being maintained (you have to keep sending traffic in order to keep the target overwhelmed). Attacks therefore tend to fizzle out eventually.

DDoS attacks don't really cause damage or security problems (like stolen data) so it's more about the result of the systems going down rather than the systems themselves or their data. This is why it can be anything from an annoyance to very serious. It's one thing to knock a website offline - it's quite another to cripple vital infrastructure.

This article was from 2015, and states that at the time of the article the bit torrent services were working on patches.

Just like any niche community, there are reliable sites and unreliable sites. There are public trackers and private trackers. For one to get hacked using a the BitTorrent protocol, you would have to download a malicious torrent file.

Edit: I'll also go as far to say that the BitTorrent protocol is probably one of the safest means of downloading data (regardless if the data is legal or illegal). You are not downloading the data from a single source, instead you are downloaded bits and pieces of the whole file from multiple sources.

 

[jknezek]

Just like any niche community, there are reliable sites and unreliable sites. There are public trackers and private trackers. For one to get hacked using a the BitTorrent protocol, you would have to download a malicious torrent file.

Not really the place for this discussion. However, since what a bit torrent service/client/program does is transfer files peer to peer, the ability to slide malware of any kind into the data, whether it is used to initiate a DDOS attack using a linked computer or simply to rummage through the target computer looking for data, is a well known problem with bit torrent services. You may defend bit torrents as you like. It's no problem to me.

The fact remains they are a major source of computer infections because, by their nature, they open a target computer willingly directly to a host computer. If you are the kind of person willing to steal Pirates of the Caribbean and post it to a bit torrent service, you are the kind of person that will, in addition to sending out Pirates of the Caribbean to the fool willing to appreciate your thieving, most likely include a number of fun surprises to subvert the target computer.

It is foolish to believe otherwise. There are many, many users of bit torrent services that use them properly, just as there are many, many users of email services that use them properly. The problem is the connection formed when using a bit torrent client/service/program whatever term you want to use leaves a gaping hole that can be exploited.

There are plenty of articles from the last year of bit torrent services either directly installing malware or having the program architecture subverted by malware itself. Use at your own peril.

 

[Aristo-cat]

Not really the place for this discussion. However, since what a bit torrent service/client/program does is transfer files peer to peer, the ability to slide malware of any kind into the data, whether it is used to initiate a DDOS attack using a linked computer or simply to rummage through the target computer looking for data, is a well known problem with bit torrent services. You may defend bit torrents as you like. It's no problem to me.

The fact remains they are a major source of computer infections because, by their nature, they open a target computer willingly directly to a host computer. If you are the kind of person willing to steal Pirates of the Caribbean and post it to a bit torrent service, you are the kind of person that will, in addition to sending out Pirates of the Caribbean to the fool willing to appreciate your thieving, most likely include a number of fun surprises to subvert the target computer.

It is foolish to believe otherwise. There are many, many users of bit torrent services that use them properly, just as there are many, many users of email services that use them properly. The problem is the connection formed when using a bit torrent client/service/program whatever term you want to use leaves a gaping hole that can be exploited.

There are plenty of articles from the last year of bit torrent services either directly installing malware or having the program architecture subverted by malware itself. Use at your own peril.

It seems to me that most folks who go to the trouble to obtain a TOR system and learn how to use it would be up to no good.
I'm a novice when it comes to how it all works, but even I know that Tor usually means you want to hide your internet activities.
Not saying all Tor users are criminals, but that's where the worst of the worst lurk.
Quite a mess.

 

[mikepizzo]

Not really the place for this discussion. However, since what a bit torrent service/client/program does is transfer files peer to peer, the ability to slide malware of any kind into the data, whether it is used to initiate a DDOS attack using a linked computer or simply to rummage through the target computer looking for data, is a well known problem with bit torrent services. You may defend bit torrents as you like. It's no problem to me.

The fact remains they are a major source of computer infections because, by their nature, they open a target computer willingly directly to a host computer. If you are the kind of person willing to steal Pirates of the Caribbean and post it to a bit torrent service, you are the kind of person that will, in addition to sending out Pirates of the Caribbean to the fool willing to appreciate your thieving, most likely include a number of fun surprises to subvert the target computer.

It is foolish to believe otherwise. There are many, many users of bit torrent services that use them properly, just as there are many, many users of email services that use them properly. The problem is the connection formed when using a bit torrent client/service/program whatever term you want to use leaves a gaping hole that can be exploited.

There are plenty of articles from the last year of bit torrent services either directly installing malware or having the program architecture subverted by malware itself. Use at your own peril.

You're just proving my point though. "...the ability to slide malware of any kind into the data...". That's not how it works. There are many telltale signs about a file being safe or not. If one is looking for a video file, it's probably not a good idea to download a 56kb .EXE file. But that 2.8GB MKV file...yeah, that's probably safe. Is it possible for a virus to exist in an MP3, MP4, AVI, MKV, etc? While not likely, I'm sure it's possible. But one's Anti-Virus scans executable (.EXE) as well an non-executable files. So it will catch it up front. There will also be people commenting on the torrent file saying that it's a virus and to avoid downloading it. If one is trying to download a video file (MP4, MKV, AVI, etc), they are going to know better than to download a .ZIP, .EXE, or .RAR file.

I'm sorry man, your posts just make it seem like you have zero experience with the subject. I'd love for you to PM me some of those articles you've talked about though. I've never heard of a computer program going rouge and directly installing malware on it's own.

It seems to me that most folks who go to the trouble to obtain a TOR system and learn how to use it would be up to no good.
I'm a novice when it comes to how it all works, but even I know that Tor usually means you want to hide your internet activities.
Not saying all Tor users are criminals, but that's where the worst of the worst lurk.
Quite a mess.

Just to be clear, TOR and torrents are not the same thing. Not sure if you knew that or not, just wanted to point it out though.

 

[Aristo-cat]

You're just proving my point though. "...the ability to slide malware of any kind into the data...". That's not how it works. There are many telltale signs about a file being safe or not. If one is looking for a video file, it's probably not a good idea to download a 56kb .EXE file. But that 2.8GB MKV file...yeah, that's probably safe. Is it possible for a virus to exist in an MP3, MP4, AVI, MKV, etc? While not likely, I'm sure it's possible. But one's Anti-Virus scans executable (.EXE) as well an non-executable files. So it will catch it up front. There will also be people commenting on the torrent file saying that it's a virus and to avoid downloading it. If one is trying to download a video file (MP4, MKV, AVI, etc), they are going to know better than to download a .ZIP, .EXE, or .RAR file.

I'm sorry man, your posts just make it seem like you have zero experience with the subject. I'd love for you to PM me some of those articles you've talked about though. I've never heard of a computer program going rouge and directly installing malware on it's own.



Just to be clear, TOR and torrents are not the same thing. Not sure if you knew that or not, just wanted to point it out though.

I did not. I'm a novice. It's just such a big mess right now, and it is very difficult to understand it all.

 

[mshanson3121]

You're just proving my point though. "...the ability to slide malware of any kind into the data...". That's not how it works. There are many telltale signs about a file being safe or not. If one is looking for a video file, it's probably not a good idea to download a 56kb .EXE file. But that 2.8GB MKV file...yeah, that's probably safe. Is it possible for a virus to exist in an MP3, MP4, AVI, MKV, etc? While not likely, I'm sure it's possible. But one's Anti-Virus scans executable (.EXE) as well an non-executable files. So it will catch it up front. There will also be people commenting on the torrent file saying that it's a virus and to avoid downloading it. If one is trying to download a video file (MP4, MKV, AVI, etc), they are going to know better than to download a .ZIP, .EXE, or .RAR file.

I'm sorry man, your posts just make it seem like you have zero experience with the subject. I'd love for you to PM me some of those articles you've talked about though. I've never heard of a computer program going rouge and directly installing malware on it's own.



Just to be clear, TOR and torrents are not the same thing. Not sure if you knew that or not, just wanted to point it out though.

Viruses exist in MP3, MP4 file with greater frequency than you apparently realize. Also, the common Joe does not have an adequate anti-virus programs. Freeware like AVG etc... are notorious for missing malware and viruses in their scans.

At the end of the day, you're both right - statistically your chances are much higher of picking up malware from phishing emails or those infernal click-bait ads/articles etc on Facebook. But, he's also right that bit tors definitely pose a risk as well.