Ever since the emergence of Torrents Time, the nifty little browser plugin that allows you to stream torrents right on your browser, instead of first downloading them to play. Pirates with limited hard disk storage space have been having a field day; enjoying torrents movies right on their browser.
The Torrents Time plugin works on Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers. However, security experts are sounding the alarm; the plugin could gravely jeopardize your security. On the surface, once you install the plugin on your browser, you simply navigate to the Pirate Bay web page with the torrents you want to watch. Next to the torrent, you will see a link to stream. Hit that link and voila!
The movie is streaming on your browser; no need to download; something that comes in handy when you have limited storage space. Not forgetting you get to watch the video faster as opposed to having to wait for it to download first before you watch.
However, a group of security expert on Reddit at /r/Piracy subreddit
One Andrew Sampson elaborates in technical details the security flaws he discovered with Torrents Time. As it works out, the plugin runs the entire torrent client on a web page and uses a service employing some creative programming that ignores critical security measures.
Perhaps the most serious security violation is the abuse of cross-origin resource sharing (CORS). (It is okay if you don’t understand the terminologies and what they mean. Just nod and move on to the next sentence.) According to Sampson, how Torrents Time is set up opens a security hole than can compromise your downloads and even your IP address; something you want to avoid especially if you are downloading illegal stuff.
So do you still want to stream torrents right on your browser, courtesy of Torrents Time? Thank, but not thanks, I would think. There are a plethora of torrents clients out there that are secure, and your security is worth the little wait for the download to complete rather than streaming on your browser under insecure conditions.
