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<blockquote data-quote="notabot" data-source="post: 836144" data-attributes="member: 75970">Just to say - Recently I opened and scanned a laptop from my student years (~15 yrs old). Back in the day I did download from torrents but only from reputable torrent creators, from memory tpb had a special color for their icons. I was using 1-2 AVs as a student (one was just static) and they never reported anything. I had forgotten about the files but using a modern AV flagged *most* of them with malware.&nbsp;15 years of progress in signatures and ML static detection revealed that yesterday’s “reputable” torrent creators were in fact seeding malware and getting a clear pass from 2 AVs wasn’t sufficient.&nbsp;Being the paranoid that I am I was running these from within a VM but the moral is clear pirated stuff is extremely dangerous and I found it worrying that at the time this was the AAA stuff that was the “golden standard”.&nbsp;Only use software you’ve bought, if it’s too expensive use a big &amp; reputable open source alternative</blockquote>

[QUOTE="notabot, post: 836144, member: 75970"] Just to say - Recently I opened and scanned a laptop from my student years (~15 yrs old). Back in the day I did download from torrents but only from reputable torrent creators, from memory tpb had a special color for their icons. I was using 1-2 AVs as a student (one was just static) and they never reported anything. I had forgotten about the files but using a modern AV flagged *most* of them with malware. 15 years of progress in signatures and ML static detection revealed that yesterday’s “reputable” torrent creators were in fact seeding malware and getting a clear pass from 2 AVs wasn’t sufficient. Being the paranoid that I am I was running these from within a VM but the moral is clear pirated stuff is extremely dangerous and I found it worrying that at the time this was the AAA stuff that was the “golden standard”. Only use software you’ve bought, if it’s too expensive use a big & reputable open source alternative [/QUOTE]

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