uTorrent.com Website Infected with Scareware

The popular uTorrent website was hacked on Monday morning at approximately 4 AM, the attackers replacing the standard client software download with a fake anti-virus.

Luckily, two hours later the site's administrators noticed the hack and took the affected servers offline.

It was initially believed that BitTorrent.com was also hit, but in a later update on their blog, website representatives stated that after further analysis they could not confirm that BitTorrent.com or the BitTorrent Mainline/Chrysalis were part of the incident.

Users who might have downloaded the “scareware” program would be alerted after installation on the presence of a virus. The application called Security Shield then requests payment in order to remove the virus.

“We recommend anyone who downloaded software between 4:20 a.m. and 6:10 a.m. PT run a security scan of their computer,” said as a recommendation BitTorrent administrators.

“We take the security of our systems and the safety of our users very seriously. We sincerely apologize to any users who were affected,” they added.

As a clarification, the blog informs clients that only those who took the software from the uTorrent website between the specified hours could be affected in any way. Others who downloaded the application before or after are surely safe.

This type of malware is not easy to remove, so if you're among those who've transferred the program in the critical timeline, make sure you do a complete scan of your system and in case a threat is detected, take the necessary steps to remove it.

We've recently seen this type of scareware in a few isolated situations, but it seems that online "blackmail" methods are quickly covering ground.

uTorrent is one of the world's most popular torrent clients because it's known to be small, fast and highly accessible. Part of its popularity comes from the fact that it can be installed on multiple platforms including Linux and Mac.