March 07 Downloading MP3s: Like Taking Candy From Stranger
Downloading tunes seems to be relatively safe, but experts have discovered a vulnerability -- you leave the door open for hackers, who want to take that song you're downloading and add some sour notes, reported News 3's Corey Miller.
If you download music and use new versions of popular music players to play it back, you get the song and sometimes a little more.
"Instead of just running a wave file, it will also open up a Web browser to a band's Web site," said Chris Gerg of Berbee in Madison.
That's because new players allow for hidden commands inside music files. They could take you to the band's Web site or do just about anything else.
The problem is you don't know what commands are hidden behind the music, so you're essentially taking candy from a stranger.
"You don't know what you're getting," Gerg said. "Sure, it says BeastieBoys.mp3, and maybe it's Beastie Boys and maybe it's not. It took record companies to spell the doom of Napster (news - web sites), but this might be the final death bill."
The only real protection you have against this -- outside of not downloading from strangers -- is to increase your Internet security level.
How?
In your control panel, you can tell your computer not to launch anything, without asking you first.
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