Torrents seem like the perfect option when you don’t want to spend money on Netflix, Amazon, or any other streaming device to watch a movie. Downloading anything on a torrent site is extremely easy and hassle-free. Unfortunately, there are a lot of risks involved in it.
So, to know if torrents are safe or not for your PC, read the article!
Are Torrents Safe?
Torrents are not safe. The cyber cell continuously warns you about the dangers it can pose to your system. Have you ever noticed the videos or links that are attached on torrent? Either they are sexually explicit material or would ask you to click on a link to download it.
Both of these can instantly infect your account and send you such explicit material time and again. This opens your PC to many other viruses and trojan horses that can infect your system.
Further, this also opens your PC to hackers. Although hackers are not interested in hacking an ordinary person’s PC sometimes, they do it to extort money.
There is a service called DDoS, an acronym for Distributed Denial of Services through which huge masses of data attack a single server. Thus, bringing the main server down and making it easy to access by the third party.
Many torrent sites are vulnerable to these attacks. Hence, if you want a secure torrent, opt for only the best torrent sites.
However, a few years back, this attack or hack was impossible. The torrents were not safe then, but they were only limited to viruses. Nowadays, the advanced technology and the need to hack the PC illegally has created easy access to hack the computers.
Can Someone Hack Me Through uTorrent?
Tavis Ormandy, a Project Zero researcher, has revealed that some torrent apps or sites such as uTorrent are vulnerable to hacking through Domain Name System Rebinding. If a user visits a malicious site, this technique can control the interface remotely.
This further means that the attacker can take control of the system and create a DNS name that responds to the hacker and not to the user. So, the next time the user opens the same malicious site, it will get the information and proof.
Additionally, Project Zero gives 90 days to the vendors to fix this issue. Otherwise, they can go public with it so that the users are not at risk. But Ormandy went public with this information within 40 days. Although the issue is of low complexity, he wants to remove it as soon as possible.
If the flaws are not fixed timely, it could open the PC to malware and give access to the hacker to your download history. It can also steal sensitive information on your computers, such as login credentials, passwords, or important bank details.
Hacking happens rarely, and unless you are sure that someone out there will hack you, you can also switch to VPN. You can download the movies through torrent via a VPN, making it a secure proxy channel. This way, your IP address will not be leaked, and your identity will also remain hidden.
Moreover, you should also update the torrent apps to the latest versions because they fix the bugs. Downloading movies, series, songs, and software through torrents is illegal in some countries. If you are found downloading illegally, it can also invite legal actions against you.
As we mentioned before, torrent sites usually infect your PC with viruses that can jam the system. So it is good to use some precautions, such as reading the comments before downloading.
The majority of people who have faced a similar issue will have commented about the spam site. So, always read the comments first. Moreover, you can also see if the file is an extension file. If it ends with .exe, then it can contain the virus. Steer ahead of these files.
Final Thoughts
Users have always turned to torrents to download their favorite movies. But some of the external links on the site can cause potential danger to your PC. You should always use the best torrent sites available to avoid the issues.
Hacking is a severe offense, and because the viruses make the PC vulnerable, it can further open up the system to hacking.
The engineers will always work to avoid these issues, but hackers will anyway find a loophole. So, your system’s safety depends upon you. We hope this article helped you understand how to avoid the virus and hackers from accessing your PC.