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MPAA Links Movie Downloads To Botnet, Internet Security Threat

Posted by: , 18:12 AEST, Tue July 5, 2011

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The MPAA tries to use recent headlines to say that pirated movie downloads may be endangering the entire Internet

A post on the MPAA's blog has tried to link unauthorized movie downloads to TDL, the botnet that made headlines recently.

Security firm Kaspersky Labs recently revealed the existence of what they claim is an "indestructible" botnet, name TDL, that has 4.5 million "zombie" computers as part of the network, ready to be used for malicious purposes. Kaspersky noted that the malware that allowed computers to be controlled was spread via affiliate programs, that pay as much as $200 for every 1,000 infected systems.

The post on MPAA's blog, which do not allow any sort of visitor feedback whatsoever, then tries to make the connection between TDL and pirated downloads, although the post is light on detail in regards to facts and evidence of such a link.

"Kaspersky’s researchers noted that rogue websites are prime vehicles for this kind of abuse," noted the blog entry, and thus linking Kaspersky's research to websites that do not yield to the MPAA's demands, websites that the lobby group calls "rogue".

The MPAA has in the past listed websites like RapidShare and MegaUpload on their list of rogue websites, as well as the more expected ones such as The Pirate Bay and isoHunt.

But as for evidence that TDL is being spread through any of these above websites, the MPAA blog provided scant detail, if any.

The blog post concluded by saying that this latest, seemingly unrelated, security threat is "All the more reason to keep rogue sites from reaching U.S. consumers. Stealing movies isn’t worth the risk to American jobs – or the risk to Internet security."

Do you see the connection between TDL and the MPAA's list of rogue websites? Post your answer in this news article's comments section, or in this forum thread:

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=95004


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