Security - Announcements

BitTorrent Blocked on CUMC Campus Beginning November 14th, 2005

In an effort to protect all systems on the CUMC network from the increasing occurrence of botnet hosts - and to provide consistent bandwidth to all users - the Information Security Department has decided to block the use of the BitTorrent Program on the network as of November 14th, 2005.

BitTorrent is a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) filesharing program that allows users to transfer files, sometimes copyrighted, using a client. BitTorrent is specifically being targeted for blocking because it does not allow the option to disable filesharing. For the entire time that a user is downloading a BitTorrent file or simply has the client window open, you are vulnerable to filesharing issues - including having your system become part of a botnet.

A botnet consists of program(s) running (generally without the knowledge of the user) in the background of a number of computers, allowing the creator of the botnet to control the group remotely. A botnet is often used for malicious purposes such as spamming or denial-of-service attacks. University systems and networks are frequently targeted, due in part to the high-bandwidth networks they use.

Some other common issues are the use of these programs to illegally download copyrighted material, and exceeding precious bandwidth resources while using BitTorrent for any purpose.

Please contact the CUMC IT Service Desk at extension 5-Help (212-305-4357) if you have any questions or concerns regarding the blocking of this program.