P2P: Family info overexposed?

"Extreme file-sharing" is what the Washington Post headline writer calls it, and that's an understatement. On the family PCs they're using to swap tunes, file-sharers are sharing tax and payroll records, medical records, bank statements, emails, etc. Post PC security writer Brian Krebs writes in his blog that he found all of that and more while "poking around Limewire, an online peer-to-peer file-sharing network where an estimated 2 million users share and swap MP3 files, movies, software titles and just about anything and everything else made up of ones and zeroes (including quite a few virus-infected files)." He's not the first - see this '02 study at HP labs. Pass along this good advice from Brian to any file-sharers at your house: "If you're going to use file-sharing networks, be extremely careful about what you download; and, pay close attention to the files and folders you are letting the rest of the world see." [For more, see "File-sharing realities for families."]