'Game of Thrones' torrent malware found

With its immense popularity, torrents of "Game of Thrones" may now come bundled with malware, a tech site reported over the weekend.

 

PC Magazine said that while embedding malware in the video file itself will be "difficult" or even "impossible," malware distributors may disguise their products as "Game of Thrones."

 

"Most malware we see delivered through file sharing and warez sites doesn't delivered as promised. However, over time we've started to see more clever tricks from the bad guys," it quoted Roel Schouwenberg, senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab, as saying.

 

PC Mag cited figures from Torrent Freak showing the season premiere of "Game of Thrones" third season was the most pirated file of all time.

 

It said this popularity may prompt malware distributors to seed "Game of Thrones" with their products.

 

Yet, PC World said malware has always been a part of file sharing, even before BitTorrent.

 

"I remember Napster, eDonkey, Limewire ... Almost 60 percent of it was malware. The torrents aren't really that different," said Sophos senior threat researcher Beth Jones.

 

SilverSky analyst Grace Zeng added people tend to "become less alert when it comes to something they are eager to watch or play for free."

 

Zeng said tactics include using an archive format like .rar or .zip to store malware, or making the victim download a specific codec that could be malware.

 

PC Mag said downloaders should have security software running on their machines. — TJD, GMA News