TorrentGuard: Stopping scam and malware distribution in the BitTorrent ecosystem

In this paper we conduct a large scale measurement study in order to analyse the fake content publishing phenomenon in the BitTorrent ecosystem. Our results reveal that fake content represents an important portion (35%) of those files shared in BitTorrent and just a few tens of users are responsible...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Cuevas, Rubén, Kryczka, Michal, González, Roberto, Cuevas, Ángel, Azcorra, Arturo|||0000-0002-5298-1248
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Institución:IMDEA Networks Institute
Repositorio:IMDEA Networks Institute Digital Repository
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dspace.networks.imdea.org:20.500.12761/1269
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12761/1269
https://dx.doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bjp.2013.12.007
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Peer-to-peer networking
BitTorrent
Malware distribution
Descripción
Sumario:In this paper we conduct a large scale measurement study in order to analyse the fake content publishing phenomenon in the BitTorrent ecosystem. Our results reveal that fake content represents an important portion (35%) of those files shared in BitTorrent and just a few tens of users are responsible for 90% of this content. Furthermore, more than 99% of the analysed fake files are linked to either malware or scam websites. This creates a serious threat for the BitTorrent ecosystem. To address this issue, we present a new tool named TorrentGuard for the early detection of fake content. Based on our evaluation this tool may prevent end users from downloading more than 35 millions fake files per year. This could help to reduce the number of computer infections and scams suffered by BitTorrent users. TorrentGuard is already available and it can be accessed through both a webpage or a Vuze plugin.