Peer to peer sharing is a growing Internet-based fraudulent activity. Peer to peer sharing is not illegal in its own right, unless the contents being shared are subject to copyright restrictions.

Peer to peer networks allow users within a defined network to share components of their network with other users. Unlike a typical centralised network, a peer to peer network typically does not have a central server and clients; rather each user (peer) allocates a portion of their network and bandwidth to others in their network.

Social Networking or Criminal Activity?

Peer to peer was perhaps the first iteration of social networking, now made popular by sites such as Facebook®. Each user has equal access and equal use of files shared on their peer to peer network. Users also make mutual decisions about who gets access to what.

Security on a peer to peer network is not typically strong, making the fraudulent activity easy to detect. However, the dispersed nature of the data counters the ease of stopping the sharing of such information.

Peer to peer networks are increasingly sharing illegally obtained video content from conditional access providers. Pay TV operators look to companies such as Internet Fraud Watchdog to help them tackle this problem.

Although more difficult to track than card sharing, Internet Fraud Watchdog has extensive experience in working with conditional access providers. An Internet Fraud Watchdog maintenance package tackles peer to peer and other illegal actions that affect your business.

Diagram Showing a Typical Peer to Peer Network

The following diagram shows that a peer to peer network is different to a centralised server model, with each computer using each other's allowed data as the share component.