P2P or not P2P?
August 12, 2009 – 3:51 pm
Computer users have been using P2P (or “peer to peer”) network file sharing ever since Napster took the country by storm 1999. While Napster is still around (doing legitimate business) it’s sites like BitTorrent, Kazaa and Limewire that have gotten the most attention lately. The more popular these sites become, the larger their user base grows and the easier they are for identity thieves to access personal information.
There are a large amount of P2P users that don’t fully understand the concept of P2P file sharing. They think that when they hop on a P2P network to download the latest Killers song or the last episode of True Blood that if they’re not placing anything available for upload that no one has access to their computer. They are dead wrong. When connected to a service like Limewire users are sharing all of the files that are in their “shared” folders on their computers.
Most shared files are in the My Documents (for PC) or Library folders. The trouble is, unsuspecting and unknowing users place important information in those folders like password sheet, tax returns and bank statements. All a fellow P2P user has to do is search for “taxes” or “tax documents” and if your file is called “Ronny’s Taxes” it will show on their screen. Now “Ronny’s Taxes” are on Mr. Conman’s hard drive.
That’s exactly what happened when Frederick Wood typed in similar terms and downloaded people’s confidential information. For his trouble, Mr. Wood was recently sentence to three years in prison for wire fraud, accessing a protected computer without authorization to commit fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Police found records of over 120 people that Wood obtained partially through Limewire downloads.
So P2P or not P2P? Only use services that you understand and know how to protect yourself from.
Tags: bank accounts, bittorent, file sharing, kazaa, limewire, napster, p2p, p2p file sharing, p2p networks, peer to peer, tax records, taxes
