Pirate Bay Branded “Malware Distributor” by Google | Hacker News Reader

Pirate Bay Branded “Malware Distributor” by Google

torrentfreak.com

37 pointsllambda27 comments

The headline is misleading. The Pirate Bay as a whole has not been branded anything by Google. Rather, certain pages using bayImg and an affiliate ad network were detected delivering adware or something malicious. So, Google's software detected this only on those pages, not the Pirate Bay as a whole, and now Chrome and Firefox now display a warning when trying to access those specific pages on thepiratebay.se.

The Pirate Bay is aware of the problem and they are working to clean-up their ads. The scary messages will subside when the ads are fixed. Pretty much a non-story.

One of the advertisement networks was loading an exploit kit.

It's an accurate label. Those ads they show seem to carry whatever payload they please. Google is right to warn people away from there.

Not to mention whatever crap is in the torrents themselves.

The torrents have actually been quite high quality, especially if you stick by those uploaded by trusted community members.

I'll agree they need to put a tighter leash on their advertisers, though.

That argument seems pretty iffy to me. If people post links to pages that contain malware in HN comments, should HN be tagged as a malware distributor?

If HN has no policy against it and allows it to continue , then I suppose yes.

but TPB takes down fakes torrents/malware all the time

On a practical level am I more likely to get malware by clicking links from HN or downloading random torrents off TPB?

On a practical level, both HN and TPB track users and have karma systems. If you click on links from established users, you are unlikely to experience malware on both sites.

That's not really the point, you have to be more careful on one site than the other.

Plus TBP links to far more executable binaries than HN.

On a practical level you're also less likely to catch a computer virus if you stay off the Internet. Does that mean you should stop using the Internet?

If the malware is in ads that get loaded when the HN page gets loaded, then HN should be flagged as distributing malware. The reasoning is purely technical. Will loading this page involve loading malware?

The comment appears to be countering the argument that the torrents containing malware should earn this warning.

Ads?

An ad partner that doesn't do due diligence and may allow malicious scripts to be inserted is no small matter - web browsers are rightly warning about that.

It doesn't matter if you're piratebay or Obama's website - first clean up, and then ask to be reconsidered as a safe site.

They should flag cnet/Download.com next.

I downloaded something recently that was, unfortunately, only available from their site. They now wrap downloads in their own executable that presents something that looks like a TOS but it's to install browser toolbars. Even if you decline it STILL installs some coupon browser plugin on your system.

Does anyone know if there is a way to present things like this to Google for review?

I just gave up when I couldn't work out which download buttons were for crapware, and which was the one I actually wanted.

The smallest one is the legit download. May still contain toolbars though.

Is always the littlest one but if you can just use AdBlock, it usually hides the fake ones.

The problem is they're all crapware, even the real download.

Irrespective of the content on TPB, I've been redirected to pages I didn't want to go to while on the site.

Imagine that a site getting flagged because their ad affiliate delivers malware.

This is how reputation based services act. If the service finds malware it flags the site or url. SiteAdvisor would do the same thing if it detects malware.

How do you think the reputation service should mark sites that distribute malware?

Wonder what The Pirate Bay will brand them like?

"The Pirate Bay: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

Specially when they promote unpopular music bands in the front page, its not illegal but how do they dare to replace record labels like that! That's just evil.

I don't know why they don't do this to MPAA and whatnot.

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