There has always been speculation that P2P networks aren't exactly safe, with files that appear to be movies or images, but yet are actually executable viruses. It's never been a huge concern for those familiar with file sharing, however, they simply learned to look before they leaped.

New concerns always arise however, and sometimes they can be very loud and embarrassing.

A new website, See What You Share is putting light on just what kinds of files are available on the P2P networks. Images have appeared on this website look like they are actually quite personal and oftentimes classified information. How does something like this happen?

A good look at the defaults for some of the P2P software shows the problem. A great deal of them use already existing folders as the "share" folders. They do this in an attempt to stop those that would otherwise just leech files and "force" them to share *something*. P2P application developers do not see users as bright enough to share their own files. Instead of letting them configure it on their own, they forcefully find common mp3, movie, and picture folders and start sharing the contents within.

One can imagine the potential chaos. Currently, on the website are pictures of US forces in Iraq that they obviously don't want public, names of military members, phone numbers and addresses, and etc. for government forces. For the paranoid among the US forces, this should be an outrage and indeed might be. What will they do to fix the problem?

Why, they'll shut the "See What You Share" website down! The problem still remains, and there will be leaks in other forms. The nanny state is limited in it's alternatives. Yet there are even larger issues at stake.

What happens if, in the near future, viruses with P2P technology abuse built-in (as we've already seen with Phatbot, and some other variants) start faking their legitimacy as a P2P node by automatically sharing the same folders that standard P2P software such as Shareaza and Bearshare do?

Suggestion for US Forces:
Do not save pictures in the default "My Pictures" folder, do not save music in the default "My Music" folder, and do not save movies in the default "My Movies" folder. Instead, make new directories for all three and do not use P2P software.

Oh, and do not shut down this website for bringing the issue to light, fix the real problem.

(Any specific opinions/suggestions expressed in this article are my own, and not reflective of GSO members, the GSO staff, or GSO as a whole)

Im afraid that I dont agree with this site. Its motives are very respectable but these photos should first have been sent to the appropriate authorities and any material that could have any impact whatsoever on the safety and well being of our armed forces should never be published. I agree with full disclosure on a lot of issues but not this ....

I disagree.

At first glance, it seems the site has taken great lengths in blacking out any sensitive material on public view. From what I gather, the author has also unsuccessfully contacted some of the agencies involved about resolving the issue...so I cant blame him for posting it up for all to see.

I think that is hilarious, I fully agree that P2P should be wiped out anyway. And people should smarten up, or, P2P programs should stop automatically sharing things if the user isnt smart enough to work it out.

Just wish that the sites b/w hadnt been used up so I could check out more

Are you off your trolly, shut down p2p. What are you some kind of lunatic, how about we get you to pay for all of the bandwidth that would be used if server based solutions were put into place, heh I thought not.

No, shut it down so we get rid of all the dumb people out there that can only point and click. This would then move the focus of the authorities onto something more important like murders and rapes etc. Instead they use a lot of resources going after all these p2p weenies.

File sharing was better kept underground and less accessible to everyone.

1st rule of thumb in Spookies way of thinking

Never ever make Uncle Sam or his family look silly- He has no sense of humor when someone calls his family like DoD, DoJ, and the likes of Alphabet City Ignorant.

You can tell him privately - but do it in public and you might as well do the BOHICA after investing in some form of lubricant.

Just my ramblings

¿Have you tried with soulseek p2p? there is an option to see user shared files.

If you find for example explorer.exe...

UFFFFFFFF

Drives c: shared



Ignorance is dangerous

Interesting read & site some quite personal stuff on that site just shows how unaware some people are..

no exe's, docs, txt's? What about manuals, some of them are txt's...
no exe's? How about self executables?

Zip them, then download to a quarantine folder, which is isolated and once you feel sure they clean (scan them) then you can get them out.