The most famous portals for downloading torrents which is BitTorrent and uTorrent has been deemed as a threat by several antivirus companies. The issue percolates to all spheres from the desktop client to a remote system. Unwanted software and advertisements were cited as one of many reasons behind this red flag.
Post the Tron acquisition, uTorrent and BitTorrent’s channels are mostly oriented to favour cryptocurrency owners. Millions will be affected as most depend on these two portals for downloads of massive files.
Issues Leading Upto The Development
In the past BitTorrent Inc. didn’t take warnings seriously and had classified them as fake. Many users raised the issue in uTorrent’s forums this week, and then the site was audited for threats. According to VirusTotal, more than nine vendors classify uTorrent as problematic
Notable among these is the Windows Defender, which marks it as a severe threat among labelling it as “Potentially Unwanted Software.”
Even Microsoft had flagged the torrent in the past, after which they updated their software and the security protocols. According to VirusTotal “Web Companion” is termed as the main problem. Fingers point to Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware software, which comes with uTorrent.
The warnings were not contained within uTorrent desktop client either. The BitTorrent Mainline client shares most of its code with uTorrent has also borne the brunt of the flag being red-flagged by more than eight vendors. Companies have been approached for comment, but no answers were received from their end
Any users who are using uTorrent should proceed at their own risk. Adware and advertisements and recent changes do make it a bit insecure, and one should be safe and watch out for privacy invasion. Using compatible software, one should watch out for the warnings if and any he gets when using uTorrent and its partner client.
