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uTorrent Flagged As ‘Harmful’ by Anti-Virus Companies and Google

utorrent-logo-newWith millions of new downloads per month uTorrent is without doubt the most used BitTorrent client around.

The software is the main source of revenue for the San Francisco based company BitTorrent Inc. and generates income through advertisements and bundled software.

The latter now appears to be causing trouble as several anti-virus vendors have begun listing uTorrent as a security risk. The scanning result below from VirusTotal shows that at least six anti-virus applications, including ESET and Symantec, have flagged the software as problematic.

The anti-virus scans associate the uTorrent.exe file with Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT and the controversial OpenCandy bundling software. While this isn’t the first time that uTorrent has been flagged in this manner, we haven’t seen it being reported by this many independent tests before.

uTorrent’s Virustotal results

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In addition to action by the anti-virus companies, uTorrent is also being blocked by Google in several ways. When attempting to download the latest stable release of the torrent client, Chrome flags the software as malicious and blocks the download, although this only appears to happen sporadically.

Google is also actively blocking several pages that link to uTorrent and other BitTorrent Inc. software. According to Google, parts of the uTorrent website contain “harmful programs.”

uTorrent.com warning in Chrome

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The same “harmful software” warning from Google also prevented millions of people from accessing popular torrent sites earlier this month.

A Google spokesperson informed us that this was the result of the company’s increased efforts to block programs that make “unexpected changes” to people’s computers.

“Google Safe Browsing’s ability to detect deceptive software has steadily improved,” the company explained in a recent blog post.

“In the coming weeks, these detection improvements will become more noticeable in Chrome: users will see more warnings about unwanted software than ever before,” Google adds.

These and the other uTorrent threat reports all seem to be triggered by bundled third-party software bundled. There is no indication or evidence that the BitTorrent client itself is harmful.

We asked BitTorrent Inc. for a comment on the recent reports but the company has yet to respond.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and the best VPN services.


Source: TorrentFreak

Grooveshark Co-Founder Josh Greenberg Dies Aged 28

joshJosh Greenberg, the co-founder of the recently shuttered Grooveshark music streaming service, has been found dead in his Florida home.

The 28-year-old was discovered in his bed Sunday evening by his girlfriend in the house they shared.

“Josh Greenberg, co-founder of #Grooveshark was found dead in his Gainesville home Sunday evening. No evidence of foul play or suicide,” local police reported on Twitter.

Lori Greenberg, Josh’s mother, told Gainsville.com that her son had “never been sick a day in his life” and police had informed her that there was no evidence of any injuries or involvement with drugs.

“They are as baffled as I am,” she said. “It looked like he was sleeping.”

The popular entrepreneur’s mother briefly mentioned the closure of Grooveshark earlier this year after a prolonged legal battle with the major recording labels of the United States. She said that her son had been “more relieved than depressed” that the matter had been brought to an end.

“He was excited about potential new things that he was going to start,” she said.

Josh Greenberg and Sam Tarantino founded Grooveshark as 19-year-old freshmen at the University of Florida in March 2006. The company grew to become a major player in the streaming market with close to 150 employees but was continuously dogged by licensing and related copyright issues.

After spending increasing amounts of time and money on its legal defense, Grooveshark eventually threw in the towel at the end of April this year. Parent company Escape Media entered into a consent judgment with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group which saw the operation shut down for good.

Friend Ben Erez, who describes Josh as his mentor, heaped praise on the entrepreneur.

“There are people whose names I hear over and over again who end up disappointing when I finally meet them. When I met Josh for the first time, I felt the opposite. Here was a guy who deserved every word of praise I had heard,” he wrote.

“I’m sad and shocked but I can’t stop imagining what Josh would say. Probably something very zen like ‘appreciate me for who I was, mourn my loss, and get back to enjoying life. It’s too short to not’.”

Comments from Josh’s girlfriend Abby Mayer cited in a police department report note that her spouse was not known to be sick or on any prescribed medication.

Toxicology results will take two or three months.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and the best VPN services.


Source: TorrentFreak