Kservice.exe
What is this all about? I hear you ask. Why are you talking about computers and rubbish like that again? Well, read on and be prepared to be shocked!
You've probably seen the BBC, Channel 4 and, if you've got it, Sky advertising their "telly on demand" services, namely BBC iPlayer, 4oD and Sky on Demand respectively. "Get online and watch it where you want, when you want!" the tag lines go. Well I was suckered in to it when I missed "The Big Fat Quiz of the Year: 2007" and like every other sheeptastic person I fell for the marketing, downloaded Channel 4's 4oD, and satisfied my desire to have another thing "on demand". And why not eh? after all we do live in the age of convenience.
Brilliant! thought I. What a great idea. It works well and you can download the programs onto your computer and watch them whenever you like! Hunky-dory.
So yesterday I noticed some unusual network activity (lots of flashing lights on the internet box). Normal for a time when you're browsing the web etc. but no one was using the computer, so why is it using the internet? It should be idle.
Alarm bells were ringing. This is a symptom of a virus, trojan or some spyware. Beccy has purchased Symatec's Norton Internet Security so it shouldn't be that and we should be protected. Only one thing to do; run a scan, but it turned up nothing. This morning I ummed and ahhed and couldn't work it out, I had a flash of inspiration, let's see if we can find the offending process. One did stand out. I don't know why, just a hunch maybe, it was called Kservice.exe. A quick look on google and a very encompassing and helpful page on... you guessed it, Wikipedia. See it here. Further reading through the sources at the bottom of the page reveals a shocking truth:
When you install the afore mentioned on demand clients you accept in the Terms and Conditions that you will participate in a Peer 2 Peer network to download the data; i.e. once you've downloaded data you then share it with anyone who wants it, effectively turning your computer into an internet go-between. This I can accept. However when you close said client and stop using it this "Kservice.exe" continues to use the internet to give the downloaded show to everyone else. Now there's nothing in the Terms and Conditions about that! In actual fact you have no control over how much this Kservice.exe can do. Moreover for those of you with data bandwidth limits this can be dangerous as this stealth program, which doesn't show up anywhere, continues to use your internet connection. This is effectively malware being promulgated by big media companies.
So what are we to do? Well there are lots of suggestions out there to stop it, the best of which can be found here: kservice.exe, Channel 4 and the stolen bandwith…
If you are infected then you need a copy of the uninstaller which is hard to come by.
My advice, stay clear of on demand clients and if you miss a show; wait for the repeat.
You've probably seen the BBC, Channel 4 and, if you've got it, Sky advertising their "telly on demand" services, namely BBC iPlayer, 4oD and Sky on Demand respectively. "Get online and watch it where you want, when you want!" the tag lines go. Well I was suckered in to it when I missed "The Big Fat Quiz of the Year: 2007" and like every other sheeptastic person I fell for the marketing, downloaded Channel 4's 4oD, and satisfied my desire to have another thing "on demand". And why not eh? after all we do live in the age of convenience.
Brilliant! thought I. What a great idea. It works well and you can download the programs onto your computer and watch them whenever you like! Hunky-dory.
So yesterday I noticed some unusual network activity (lots of flashing lights on the internet box). Normal for a time when you're browsing the web etc. but no one was using the computer, so why is it using the internet? It should be idle.
Alarm bells were ringing. This is a symptom of a virus, trojan or some spyware. Beccy has purchased Symatec's Norton Internet Security so it shouldn't be that and we should be protected. Only one thing to do; run a scan, but it turned up nothing. This morning I ummed and ahhed and couldn't work it out, I had a flash of inspiration, let's see if we can find the offending process. One did stand out. I don't know why, just a hunch maybe, it was called Kservice.exe. A quick look on google and a very encompassing and helpful page on... you guessed it, Wikipedia. See it here. Further reading through the sources at the bottom of the page reveals a shocking truth:
When you install the afore mentioned on demand clients you accept in the Terms and Conditions that you will participate in a Peer 2 Peer network to download the data; i.e. once you've downloaded data you then share it with anyone who wants it, effectively turning your computer into an internet go-between. This I can accept. However when you close said client and stop using it this "Kservice.exe" continues to use the internet to give the downloaded show to everyone else. Now there's nothing in the Terms and Conditions about that! In actual fact you have no control over how much this Kservice.exe can do. Moreover for those of you with data bandwidth limits this can be dangerous as this stealth program, which doesn't show up anywhere, continues to use your internet connection. This is effectively malware being promulgated by big media companies.
So what are we to do? Well there are lots of suggestions out there to stop it, the best of which can be found here: kservice.exe, Channel 4 and the stolen bandwith…
If you are infected then you need a copy of the uninstaller which is hard to come by.
My advice, stay clear of on demand clients and if you miss a show; wait for the repeat.
posted by Simon @ 1:22 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Yeah, I had a look at that 4OD thingy. I didn't get very far. Apparently I must:
# Have a Windows XP or Windows Vista PC
# Internet Explorer 5.5 or over
# Windows Media Player 10 or over
See, that's the thing about having Linux or a Mac: loads of dodgy software is automatically filtered out. No viruses, spyware, malware, underhand p2p software, or any of that. It just wouldn't wash. I notice that iPlayer and YouTube manage to work perfectly well without Windows, IE or Windows Media Player. I'm not sure if any of this really helps. Do I sound smug?
Jonty,
Thanks for your help, although I am a little perturbed that iPlayer will work on Linux, perhaps linux permits closer control?
You don't sound smug, but Beccy and I are thinking of making the switch to Mac OS soon for this very reason.
Post a Comment
<< Home