One of the greatest dangers associated with torrenting relates to the integrity of the files being shared. As one of the most popular and widespread P2P sharing protocols, torrents are a big target for hackers, unscrupulous advertisers, and other parties looking to infect systems.

The BitTorrent protocol is not illegal or unsafe in itself. It is just a means to share any type of file, and plenty of legal torrenting services do exist. The most popular torrent trackers, such as ThePirateBay and KickassTorrents, however, operate in a legal grey area, offering users free access to copyrighted content.

Torrenting can be a risky business. Not only can you stumble across media and applications that turn out to be full of viruses and malware, but you could end up in legal trouble due to copyright restrictions. However, by following along with the six tips in this guide, you'll be able to torrent safely.

Using torrents is banned in most companies, and copyright infringement is not the only reason for that. Drawbacks of using torrents: Slower internet speeds Risk of malware infection IP-address publicly visible Lots of disk space taken Battery drains faster