It's not very often we hear about viruses, Trojans, and other types of malicious programs affecting MP3 music downloads, but the latest outbreak is the biggest for three years. According to Mcafee Avert Labs, the Downloader-UA.h Trojan horse has been seen on P2P file sharing networks, such as LimeWire and eDonkey masquerading mostly as MP3 files. Over 500,000 users so far have been hit when installing a fake MP3 player called PLAY_MP3.exe. Once installed, the user's computer is infected with an adware program that launches an Internet browser page displaying a popup advert.
There are many filenames floating around on P2P networks with different file sizes and names. Some of the names include:
- preview-t-3545425-changing times earth wind.mp3
- t-3545425-just got lucky.mp3
- preview-t-3545425-st trinnians girls aloud.mp3
- t-3545425-los padres de ella.mpg
- t-3545425-suicide bride dana.mp3
Rather than risk your entire hard drive being infected and possible corruption by a virus it is always safer to use digital music services, or download free and legal MP3 music from reputable websites.
For more information on where to download your music:
Not content with giving away the first 9 tracks of Ghosts I-IV a while back (read blog), Trent Reznor, otherwise known as Nine Inch Nails, has done it again. The new album, called The Slip, was released this week and is available for free download from the Nine Inch Nails website. The difference this time is that the album has been created solely as a thank you to loyal fans for their past and present support. In fact, Trent Reznor has posted a blog comment on the official NIN website saying, "thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me."
The 10-track album is available in a variety of audio formats, which are, high quality VBR MP3, Apple Lossless (M4A), FLAC, and 24/96 Wav (higher audio resolution than CD); incidentally, a Bit Torrent client is needed to download the higher resolution recordings due to the large file sizes.
Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have both shown that it is possible to exist as a successful band without a major record label as long as a large fan base exists. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has certainly acknowledged this through the release of The Slip album and his words of gratitude towards his fans.
