See What You Share - The scary side of P2P
There has always been speculation that P2P networks aren't exactly safe, with files that appear to be movies or images, but yet are actually executable viruses. It's never been a huge concern for those familiar with file sharing, however, they simply learned to look before they leaped.
New concerns always arise however, and sometimes they can be very loud and embarrassing.
A new website, See What You Share is putting light on just what kinds of files are available on the P2P networks. Images have appeared on this website look like they are actually quite personal and oftentimes classified information. How does something like this happen?
A good look at the defaults for some of the P2P software shows the problem. A great deal of them use already existing folders as the "share" folders. They do this in an attempt to stop those that would otherwise just leech files and "force" them to share *something*. P2P application developers do not see users as bright enough to share their own files. Instead of letting them configure it on their own, they forcefully find common mp3, movie, and picture folders and start sharing the contents within.
One can imagine the potential chaos. Currently, on the website are pictures of US forces in Iraq that they obviously don't want public, names of military members, phone numbers and addresses, and etc. for government forces. For the paranoid among the US forces, this should be an outrage and indeed might be. What will they do to fix the problem?
Why, they'll shut the "See What You Share" website down! The problem still remains, and there will be leaks in other forms. The nanny state is limited in it's alternatives. Yet there are even larger issues at stake.
What happens if, in the near future, viruses with P2P technology abuse built-in (as we've already seen with Phatbot, and some other variants) start faking their legitimacy as a P2P node by automatically sharing the same folders that standard P2P software such as Shareaza and Bearshare do?
Suggestion for US Forces:
Do not save pictures in the default "My Pictures" folder, do not save music in the default "My Music" folder, and do not save movies in the default "My Movies" folder. Instead, make new directories for all three and do not use P2P software.
Oh, and do not shut down this website for bringing the issue to light, fix the real problem.
Originally posted on (www.governmentsecurity.org) by me.
New concerns always arise however, and sometimes they can be very loud and embarrassing.
A new website, See What You Share is putting light on just what kinds of files are available on the P2P networks. Images have appeared on this website look like they are actually quite personal and oftentimes classified information. How does something like this happen?
A good look at the defaults for some of the P2P software shows the problem. A great deal of them use already existing folders as the "share" folders. They do this in an attempt to stop those that would otherwise just leech files and "force" them to share *something*. P2P application developers do not see users as bright enough to share their own files. Instead of letting them configure it on their own, they forcefully find common mp3, movie, and picture folders and start sharing the contents within.
One can imagine the potential chaos. Currently, on the website are pictures of US forces in Iraq that they obviously don't want public, names of military members, phone numbers and addresses, and etc. for government forces. For the paranoid among the US forces, this should be an outrage and indeed might be. What will they do to fix the problem?
Why, they'll shut the "See What You Share" website down! The problem still remains, and there will be leaks in other forms. The nanny state is limited in it's alternatives. Yet there are even larger issues at stake.
What happens if, in the near future, viruses with P2P technology abuse built-in (as we've already seen with Phatbot, and some other variants) start faking their legitimacy as a P2P node by automatically sharing the same folders that standard P2P software such as Shareaza and Bearshare do?
Suggestion for US Forces:
Do not save pictures in the default "My Pictures" folder, do not save music in the default "My Music" folder, and do not save movies in the default "My Movies" folder. Instead, make new directories for all three and do not use P2P software.
Oh, and do not shut down this website for bringing the issue to light, fix the real problem.
Originally posted on (www.governmentsecurity.org) by me.