Bittorrent Risks?

[gambitkl]

Usually, and ideally, I run my torrent downloads on another PC. But recently, I have lost access to that PC. Now I'm just wondering what risks may I see by downloading torrents on a PC where I do all my confidential stuff such as banking and work.

What I'm most worried about is getting hacked/trojans/viruses implanted on my PC DURING the download of a file. Is that possible?? I'm quite competent as to what I download and the precautions to take after a download. Also, will it help if I change the internal IP address of my PC for when downloading torrents and use a different IP address for all other stuff?

Thanks in advance. Great software, btw!

[hermanm]

> Is that possible??

In short, no.

Anything is possible since you are advertising that your IP address. The problem will be due Windows having an unpatched or unknown exploit that a hacker could take advantage of. Its possible an exploit could exist in a Bittorrent client, but that would be patched very quickly.

Only thing I recall with µTorrent is some WebUI exploit that was patched quickly. Other than that, I can't think anything else I've read which would suggest its very rare that µTorrent needs to be updated due to exploits.

[gambitkl]

If I understand this correctly, I run the same risks regardless of which PC I use on the same internal network?

So would you run bittorrents if you were in my situation where tasks like banking are done on the same PC?

[jewelisheaven]

Unlike other filesharing applications/ networks there is no shared folder. You are only sharing what you have told it to share. Therefore unless you say download something and it contains some badware it's the same risk as going onto websites in the same browser in which you have your banking cookies stored.

As long as you keep vigilant with virus scans and don't download stuff which is likely/could be bad for you, you're safer than flying in a plane

[Switeck]

uTorrent is actually LOWER risks than web surfing, because of web browsers being "tied into" far more helper applications and DLLs. (Browser Helper Objects!)

Unless you told uTorrent to run something on completion of a download, there's not even any risk of arbitrary code being run just by downloading and uploading torrents.

[Firon]

Basically, your only risk is if your computer is unpatched (in regards to Windows updates, and potentially other stuff, like an httpd or something) and someone targets your IP, which could happen even if you weren't torrenting.

Now, the stuff you download COULD be loaded with a trojan, but you'd have to run it after the fact for that to affect you, and well, you should be using an AV and using good discretion anyway.