Peers Hacking

[The Dragon]

While downloading a torrent using uTorrent can the peers hack your computers?

[DreadWingKnight]

No

[The Dragon]

Thanks, my mum was worrying and i didn't know thw answer. P.S. This is my mums, works computer.

[Falcon4]

About as much as using the internet can have a web server come up and molest your interweb... same as DreadWingKnight said: No.

[Switeck]

Actually...

Web surfing DOES leave you open to website exploits...if you visit hostile (or infected!) websites, they can attempt to hack into your computer. This is why you should probably have the latest operating system patches and disable/delete/uninstall unneeded/unwanted internet-accessing programs, as they often ADD extra ways for "bad stuff" to get on your computer.

There's even pictures which can be hacked in such a way that they can act as a backdoor infector for an unpatched computer.

In this regard, µTorrent is IMMENSELY more secure than web surfing or Microsoft Windows in general.

The only security risk associated with µTorrent is basically due to what you've downloaded...if you don't scan it for viruses and spyware, then it's a modest risk. However the same can be said for downloading from websites...or worse, commercial "trial" software.

The lone forwarded port (from router to your computer) for µTorrent makes your computer slightly vulnerable to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS for short) attacks, but the worst that should be able to do is prevent you from using the internet when 100's of "zombie" infected computers hammer your connection at once. ONLY µTorrent should be listening on the 1 forwarded port, so no other software/program/application should/could "act" on whatever packets arrive on that port.

And this isn't nearly as vulnerable as having a computer directly exposed to the internet (no router in other words) no matter HOW good a software firewall you have, because DDoS attacks can even potentially crash your software firewall with garbage packets or just simple overloads.