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Kazaa,
Infecting a Network Near You
By Erik Hansen
 With
Kazaa becoming more and more popular every day, it's only a matter of time
before the record and movie industries have the p2p network shut down for
good. We computer people should hope this day comes sooner rather then
later if we enjoy our smooth virus-free network at home and at work.
The fact of the matter is Kazaa and other p2p file sharing networks are
starting to become the new portal for viruses to enter into your home and
work, disguising themselves as movies and mp3's. Maybe you already
know this, and maybe you are mister smarty-pants and have already blocked
off
port 1214 at your router, thinking you have successfully stopped all
co-workers and teenagers at home from using the evil network, wrong!
The program says it uses port 1214 but it actually uses any port open from
1024 to 6000, if 1214 is blocked off by default. Sneaky wouldn't you say?
That's
not the only thing the creators did right, they also learned from their
successors, unlike napster, they don't have a central network portal that
all transfers go through. This is the main reason the movie and music
industry is having such a tough time shutting kazaa down, no central nervous
system to shut down. Kazaa more resembles a terrorist network then a
p2p program.
The media execs have found a new way to put an end to the thievery spreading
the country; they have (and this is speculation because I too don't want to
get sued) launched viruses throughout the kazaa network to spread fear and
discontent through the veins of the network. Kazaa has launched a
counter-strike releasing it's latest version of the program with anti-virus
software built in. This seems to have solved the problem, but I don't
feel good enough about it to condone use of the program. When you get
down to it, using kazaa is like sitting in a dark alley at night shooting up
with a dirty intervenes needle, you have no idea what you are going to get
out of the deal.
You can contact Erik at ErikHansen@Thenetworkadministrator.com
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