Are You Sharing Your Private Info Over P2P Networks?

Company warns of file-sharing risks

May 2009

With technology reportedly able to frisk approximately 450 million peer-to-peer file-sharing users each day, Pennsylvania-based company Tiversa has come across some unexpected things: the names and Social Security numbers of active duty U.S. Army soldiers, medical files belonging to AIDS patients, and even blueprints for President Obama’s “Marine One” helicopters (though downloaded to an IP address in Iran, a U.S. Navy spokesman said they posed “no significant” impact to the presidential helicopter program).

Tiversa has also found personal tax records online—“hundreds of thousands” drifting across peer-to-peer networks, according to spokesman Scott Harrer. For individuals who haven’t properly configured peer-to-peer applications like Limewire or Kazaa and who store their tax returns on their computer, the combination of file-sharing programs and sensitive files can add up to a major identity theft risk.

“Most people sharing this information are doing so inadvertently,” Harrer says. “They might not even know they have peer-to-peer installed.”

Harrer, whose company monitors P2P networks on behalf of corporate and governmental clients and alerts them to unintended breaches of sensitive or proprietary data, explains that inexperienced users may configure peer-to-peer applications to share folders that contain files other than music or video—the most popularly sought-after file-sharing commodities. Similarly, the accidental saving of a sensitive document into a shared folder could also result in its release into the vast peer-to-peer ether.

It’s not just adults putting their own information at risk, Harrer says. Teenagers or children who share computers may inadvertently configure settings in a such a way that shares sensitive data—and parents might not even know the program is set up in the first place. “We’ve seen examples of people who are very organized and probably very diligent about security [accidentally sharing sensitive files],” Harrer says. “Sometimes it’s all in one Excel file, neatly organized…passwords and usernames, credit and bank account numbers, kids’ credit card numbers, Social Security numbers.”

Fortunately, a little conscientiousness can go a long way. Consumers should be aware of what file-sharing applications are running on their computer and check sharing configurations to minimize the risk of accidental disclosures. “File-sharing obviously has legitimate uses,” Harrer says. “I would caution that, like anything, it’s got benefits and risks. Be educated on how to share in the safest possible way and [recognize] that this stuff can happen.”