Beware of Torrents Flooded with Malware

Torrent users should be aware of a new trend in that community. Researchers have discovered that hackers are now using the malware downloader, Raum, to spread malware more quickly using the torrent technology. Ransomware seems to be in distribution this way right now including Cryptowall and other versions of it, Cerber, CTB-Locker, and the financial trojan Dridex.

Some may have heard of BitTorrent. Torrents themselves are not illegal in any way, but a negative connotation follows them around because they were often used in the beginning to illegally share such content as movies, TV shows, music, and other digital content. However, the cyber criminals are now using data analytics from the most popular downloaded content and activating Raum to distribute malware more quickly and to the highest number of users.

Whether or not you are a torrent user, be cautious about what you download using any browsers. Anonymous does not mean secure. Always keep your anti-virus and anti-malware software updated. If you are one of those users who hasn’t yet put these products on all of your devices, it’s a good time to do it right now.

While you’re at it, make sure all the latest patches and security updates have been applied to all of your systems on all operating systems. While Windows computers and Android devices are still targeted most often, Apple is not 100% safe either, so update those as well. In fact, although the most targeted products for this method of sending malware is PC-based online games, the cyber criminals are also targeting activation files for both Windows and Apple Mac OS.