CBS News Feature -- P2P Security & Privacy Dangers

CBS News Feature -- P2P Privacy Dangers

A summary of some key risks associated with P2P File sharing:

1. Malware (including some of the most dangerous viruses out there) will be automatically written to openly shared hard drives. While AV protection can help, brand new viruses are created daily and seeded on P2P networks.

2. The exchange of music, CDs, P2P file shares violate Copyright Laws related to intellectual property rights. Individuals may rationalize that participating in P2P is no worse than using TIVO or copying a movie off of a cable station. Still, the "law is the law". Due to current widespread practices the RIAA or DCMA can only make "examples" out of some of the unlucky ones they catch in the process.

3. The greatest danger of all is privacy invasion as illustrated in the article. By sharing your hard drive, ANYONE in the P2P network can potentially access ANYTHING on your hard drive. It could be a tax return, bank account spreadsheet, stored email messages, or other sensitive information.