P2P Sites Spreading Obama/McCain Malware

Security company Webroot is warning those keen on following this grotesque circus of an election that hackers are exploiting trusting users of Gnutella-based file sharing networks. What appear to be campaign John McCain and Barack Obama campaign videos were found to be often seeded with malware.

In one test, of 34 search results for "Obama Speech" on FrostWire, 14 of the results produced contained active malware. Of the 19 search results for "McCain Speech," five were found out. Two lessons there: Obama speeches are more popular, and more hip to target.

"Peer-to-peer networks pose some of the greatest security risks on Internet," said Paul Piccard, director, Threat Research, Webroot. "Because P2P networks lack the security measures found in enterprise networks or trusted Web sites, users of these networks may put themselves or their companies at increased risk by downloading malicious content or leaking confidential data."