CNN Video Installs P2P On Viewer's Computers
February 5, 2009 | Comments Off People who viewed Inaugural coverage from CNN’s website have unknowingly allowed the network to install peer-to-peer software on their computers. The service from Octoshape Grid Delivery uses customers computers and their bandwidth to deliver content to other users, saving CNN a lot of money, shifting significant costs to end users.
Brian Livingston of Windows Secrets writes:
The Internet Storm Center, an Internet security organization, reported that traffic on Jan. 20 had jumped to a level thousands of times higher than usual on port 8247, which is used for UDP, the User Datagram Protocol. The center quickly identified the source as legitimate - CNN - but security consultant Raul Siles warned in his report, “It would be easy for an attacker to hide his actions on this port if we simply ignore it.” In a telephone interview, Octoshape’s P2P nature was confirmed by Mike Wise, group technical advisor for platform R&D at Turner Broadcasting System, the parent of CNN.
Livingston accuses CNN of “deceptive marketing, cost-shifting to ISPs, cost to end users, and ludicrous license terms” among other things. CNN has also used the software for some other streaming videos on their website. Livingston informs users how to remove the sneaky software.
