You Could Be File-Sharing More Than You Think

With the Congressional Oversight and Government Reform Committee taking a fresh look at the privacy and security risks posed by using LimeWire and other peer-to-peer file-sharing applications, now is a good time for both home and office Save 50% on Microsoft Office for Mac 2008. Click here to learn more. users of these services to reassess the safety of their own sensitive data.

Committee members last month directed Mark Gorton, chairman of the Lime Group, which owns LimeWire; U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., and Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission More about Federal Trade Commission, to prepare for new hearings on peer network security. The committee was responding to a batch of incidents involving highly sensitive corporate and government files leaked to the Internet at large by way of personal computers.

The committee hinted at the possibility of legal action against LimeWire to cut the security risks. In the wake of those concerns, Gorton wrote to the committee's chairman, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., declaring that the LimeWire software has been completely rewritten to give users more control over which files can be shared.

Despite such claims, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks should be used with the utmost care. A lack of user knowledge about P2P networking remains one of the biggest ways to unwittingly expose private information.

"Peer networks are growing exponentially. We don't believe that users are not going to use them just because of data breaches. That reasoning is the equivalent of saying the Internet is dangerous so don't use it, or don't drive a car because you can get killed in an accident," Keith Tagliaferri, director of operations for peer-to-peer security company Tiversa, told TechNewsWorld.