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xzjis 9 hours ago

To play devil's advocate, I think the author of the message was talking about the corporate context where it's not possible to install a torrent client; Microsoft Defender will even remove it as a "potentially unwanted program", precisely because it is mostly used to download illegal content.

Obviously illegal ≠ immoral, and being a free-software/libre advocate opposed to copyright, I am in favor of the free sharing of humanity's knowledge, and therefore supportive of piracy, but that doesn't change the perception in a corporate environment.

zx8080 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

What? Transmission never triggers any warning from Defender.

dspillett 4 hours ago | parent [-]

That will depend on how Defender is configured - in a corporate environment it may be set to be far more strict. In fact tools other than Defender are likely to be used, but these often get conflated with Defender in general discussions.

loa_in_ 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Wow, that's vile. U have many objections to this but they all boil down to M$ telling you what you cannot do with your own computer.

sneak 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Most people want Microsoft preventing them from installing malware on their own computer.

razakel 6 hours ago | parent [-]

But it isn't malware by any stretch of the imagination.

dspillett 5 hours ago | parent [-]

There are various common malware payloads that include data transfer tools (http proxies, bittorrent clients, etc.) - it isn't just password scanners, keyboard monitors, and crypto miners. These tools can be used for the transfer of further malware payloads, to create a mesh network so more directed hacking attempts are much more difficult to track, to host illegal or immoral content, or for the speedy exfiltration of data after a successful directed hack (perhaps a spear-phish).

Your use of the stuff might not be at all malware like, but in a corporate environment if it isn't needed it gets flagged as something to be checked up on in case it is not there for good reason. I've been flagged for some of the tools I've played with, and this is fine: I have legitimate use for that sort of thing in my dealings with infrastructure, there are flags ticked that say “Dave has good reason to have these tools installed, don't bother us about it again unless he fails to install security updates that are released for them”, and this is fine: I want those things flagged in case people who won't be doing the things I do end up with such stuff installed without there knowledge, so it can be dealt with (and they can be given more compulsory “don't just thoughtlessly click on every link in any email you receive, and carelessly type your credentials into resulting forms” training!).