Security firm warns against downloading pirated Windows 7 beta

A security software firm has warned against downloading the pirated copies of the Windows 7 beta that are available through torrent sites. It says there’s a serious risk of copies being infected with malware.

Fortify’s Rob Rachwald (pictured) says “The problem with this version is that there’s absolutely no way of authenticating that the early build hasn’t been tampered with by a hacker. They may have coded all sorts of malware into the 2.44 gigabytes file.”

The firm also points out that it’s particularly difficult to check a pirated operating system for viruses when it isn’t yet on the market. It’s not the same as downloading a program and running it in XP or Vista. By definition there’s no guarantee that your usual virus scanner will actually work when you come to run the pirated Windows 7. And if anyone has tampered with this copy of the operating system, chances are they’ve also disabled the security measures built into Windows itself.

For what it’s worth, the most popular torrent listings for the Windows 7 beta don’t appear to have any comments noting any security problems. Usually users of such sites will warn if they find a particular file is infected so that other users can avoid the software.

To some extent, it’s likely anyone who is downloading Windows 7 at this stage is fairly computer literate. After all, before the official release the motivation for downloading is more likely to be general nosiness than an attempt to save money. So it may well be that the people downloading have a better idea about security than the average user and aren’t blindly relying on their anti-virus software to get detect any problems.

However, Fortify’s advice is still sensible enough. With the official release of the beta edition of Windows 7 quite possibly imminent, there doesn’t seem any reason to download the pirated version and take even the slightest security risk.

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