"High School Musical" Malicious Files on the Loose on P2P networks

According to SC Magazine online criminals are currently spreading malware on P2P file-sharing networks hidden in music and video files related to the popular Disney movie High School Musical. The warning was issued by Panda Security.

Allegedly, the company hasn’t encountered such a dangerous threat on P2P networks in five years – the danger comes from the fact headline news are being used to lure the p2p users.

Ryan Sherstobitoff, PandaLabs' chief corporate evangelist explained: “In general, there is malware in P2P, but they are starting to adapt it to current events,”

The malware in question was detected by PandaLabs, Panda Security's malware analysis and detection laboratory, on the P2P networks eMule and eDonkey, but that is not so relevant since malware is usually quickly and widely distributed on all peer-to-peer networks.

“We are seeing an increasing amount of files downloaded from P2P networks containing malware," said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs, in a news release. "Even random searches could return results with malicious files, so it would seem that there are servers created exclusively for distributing malware across these networks," Sherstobitoff added.

As expected, behind the attacks there is financial motivation and users should be careful not to be easily tricked into revealing sensitive personal information.