A large US health insurer recently installed FTP/WatchDog-D to monitor usage on a bank of Windows FTP servers. Within hours, they discovered a number of Eastern European and Far Eastern hackers attempting to break into their publically-accessible FTP servers.

Since they do not do business in Eastern Europe or the Far East, they made the decision to close off access to their network for these hackers.

They used the information provided by FTP/WatchDog-D to add access rules to their firewall, denying access to their entire network from the IP addresses where the attacks were taking place. Their FTP servers were put in place to support the business data transfer requirements of their business partners, not for use by others.

Hackers Target FTP Servers

FTP servers which allow anonymous access are a prime target for distribution of pirated audio and video media. Hackers use automated bots to scan the Internet, looking for FTP servers that allow anonymous access. When they find one, they turn the FTP server into a "warez" site and use it to distribute copyrighted material illegally.

Is your FTP Server being used as a Warez Site?

Typically, a "warez" site is an FTP server that hackers take over and use to upload and download pirated copies of commercial or otherwise copyrighted software programs. If your site becomes involved in "warez" activities, legal action could be brought against you by the programmers and software companies who own the rights to the copyrighted software and media.