About BitTorrent and Related Security Concerns

BitTorrent is a type of peer-to-peer file transfer system that allows members to download various file types ranging from music and movies to documents and software. BitTorrent has been around for more than a year, but it has been gaining notoriety lately because of its large number of members; some 90,000,000 of them. The BitTorrent service works best if all parties involved are using a broadband Internet connection because there is no central server that connects the computers. As a result, the strength of the connection is dependent on the computers’ power and available bandwidth.

There are more than 120,000,000 music files available for download among BitTorrent members, and more than 180,000,000 shared file types as a whole. Because of this vast file network, it is more or less possible to find whatever it is you’re looking for through the BitTorrent network as long as it isn’t something too obscure. The average connection speed for BitTorrent users is 128 Kbps, meaning that you are downloading your files through the power of broadband Internet.

How BitTorrent Works

BitTorrent does not involve any type of active desktop software, unlike other file transfer services such as LimeWire and Napster. There are multitudes of Web sites throughout the Internet where you can search for Torrents. Torrents are active Internet connections that download a specific file you are looking for--referred to in the BitTorrent network as “seeds.” In order for a seed to be available, someone with the file you are looking for must have the BitTorrent window open. The BitTorrent window can either be open when someone is downloading the file for themselves from another seed, or once the file has been downloaded, the BitTorrent window can remain open to allow other people to download the completed file.

Something that makes BitTorrent unique is that you are never downloading a single completed file from a single vendor. Instead, you are downloading small segments of data that when put together, create the desired file.

BitTorrent Security Concerns

BitTorrent is a much safer service than other peer-to-peer networks because of how it functions. While other peer-to-peer services allow a certain degree of access to a shared folder or someone’s hard drive, BitTorrent users cannot share anything outside of the desired file type that is in an open BitTorrent window.

Due to the fact that you are only downloading segments of the file as opposed to the full thing, it also makes it incredibly difficult (if not impossible) to transmit viruses through the BitTorrent system. There are a number of people who are opposed to peer-to-peer technologies because of possible security concerns, however, virtually none of these concerns are found in the BitTorrent service.