Clearly Illegal Movie Streaming Sites

Skoal Cat

I just found out about a clearly illegal movie streaming website (which I have no interest in naming). I don't trust sites like this for obvious reasons, but why shouldn't I? Are they mining my computer for information when I view their site? Are the downloads/caches getting filled with rootkits, worms, and/or viruses? How is the end user most likely getting fucked here?

TychoCelchuuu

Well yeah, they're mining your computer, just like Google, Facebook, YouTube, etc. are mining your info by doign the whole cookie thing. Since these sites are sketchy they probably have a much higher chance of having those ads that try to give you viruses, although at this point in history your browser should be set not to load any Flash/Javascript/etc without first asking you 8 times. Depending on the site it might also be loaded up with whatever run of the mill IE/Firefox exploits are popular these days just to see if it can infect some people, but that's nothing we can know without knowing which site you're talking about.

harvest

Both Chrome and I think Firefox will tell you with a bright red screen if the site in question has hosted any malware in the last 30/90 days. Obviously I'm not really clear on details here but I just know that when i see the red screen I stay away.

TychoCelchuuu

Opera does that too, but that's not foolproof: the browsers don't scan every website on the Internet for malware every 30/90 days.