HARD TO FIND video site Kickass Torrents is being blocked by big browsers because of a perceived phishing threat.
The news comes to us from TorrentFreak, which reported that Kickass punters who use Chrome, Firefox and Safari are being treated to a pop-up note suggesting that not all is what it seems at the destination.
The text varies across the browsers but the message is always clear: you need to stop and consider moving on.
“Deceptive site ahead: Attackers on kat.cr may trick you into doing something dangerous like installing software or revealing your personal information,” says Chrome.
Firefox warns about fraud and malicious infections: “Web forgeries are designed to trick you into revealing personal or financial information by imitating sources you may trust. Entering any information on this web page may result in identity theft or other fraud.”
KickassTorrents Ups Privacy With 2-Factor Authentication: Most torrent sites are not known for their advanced … https://t.co/lUSVLVrIeW
— The Pirate Bay (@tpb) April 10, 2016
The Kickass team told TorrentFreak that it is trying to fix the problem and has made some efforts to clean up entry.
“In order to improve users’ security we are wrapping every external link in a confirmation window and this time the Google alert is referring to a wrapped link that has been posted in our community,” it explained.
“We’ve blocked that site thus rendering those external links unusable. We’ve reported it to Google and expect this security alert soon to be lifted.”
Kickass could be justifiably annoyed here, as it is one of few torrent sites that apparently takes the security of its users seriously through two-factor authentication.
@kickasstorrents Guys I keep getting a message saying you’re phishing. Ironically today I got my 6 year badge. pic.twitter.com/guagtThgbN
— Tommy Jay (@therealtommyjay) April 12, 2016
Kickass is what you might call a piracy enabling site, so there will be some parts of the wider industry that are pleased with this spanner in the works. µ
Tags: internetcopyright
Share this: