Share Files Securely

Programs like Kazaa, Morpheus, and BearShare seem too good to be true. Free files, forever! The legal and moral issues surrounding file sharing are complex, and not all file sharing is criminal. (For more on this issue, see "Hollywood vs. Your PC.") Still, you could inadvertently get into serious trouble using one of these programs.

As with Web browsing, e-mail, or any other technology that downloads files to your computer, you could contract a virus or Trojan horse that may destroy data or let someone else control your computer remotely. A recent Hewlett-Packard Labs project found that a surprising number of Kazaa users were unknowingly sharing e-mail in-boxes, browser cookies, financial data, and other personal files (for details, see "Researchers Find Security Hole in KaZaA Multimedia File-Sharing Service"). To reduce your vulnerability but still search for those images and sounds, follow these steps:

Skip the spyware: Most commercial file-sharing tools install spyware, adware, or other bandwidth-eating, intrusive utilities you don't want. You can usually choose to block them just by paying attention during installation. However, you can also safely remove unwanted spyware using Lavasoft's Ad-aware. Someone found a way to remove the unwanted applications from Kazaa, creating an underground version called Kazaa Lite. Naturally, Kazaa's owners are doing their best to shut him down, but you can still find and download Kazaa Lite by searching the Zeropaid.com file-sharing site. Better yet, use a noncommercial file-sharing tool that doesn't foist unwanted wares on you at all. My current favorite is Gnucleus, the open-source program that the current version of Morpheus is based on.

Shut the barn door: Make sure you use firewall and antivirus software. Sygate's Personal Firewall and Zone Labs' ZoneAlarm--free versions of PC World's two top-ranked commercial firewalls--are available for download (for reviews of the Pro versions of these two programs, see July's "Protect Your PC").

Don't share private files: Your file-sharing program creates default upload and download directories. If you dislike the default file-sharing folder location, make another one, but keep it separate from your personal data files (see FIGURE 3). And remember: You're sharing not just the shared folder, but every subfolder it contains as well. Those who are truly paranoid (a good thing, in my opinion) can disable file uploads completely.

Don't download viruses: In general, you won't receive a virus from sharing a file if you stick to downloading standard text, image, audio, and video file formats. Your file-sharing program may include filtering to block the download of dangerous types, including .exe, .vbs, and .scr. Archive files--those ending with the .zip, .rar, .sit, or .arj extension, for example--aren't inherently unsafe but still can contain just about anything, including a virus- or Trojan horse-laden file.

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