Skip Navigation

Do y'all still consider the machine you run pirated software/games on to still be "Secure"?

Not sure if this fits here...

An OPSEC community would probably say no, so I probably don't need to ask in those communities. But I'm curious about a (digital) pirate's perspective on this issue...

I mean, the sources listed here are supposedly "safe" right? But honestly, how much would you trust these "safe" sources?

When doing sensitive tasks like banking or filing taxes, do you:

  • Use a different OS on the same machine? (Dualboot)
  • Or put the pirated content inside a virtual machine?
  • Or just use a completely separate computer?

And since PC is much different than a Smartphone:

  • Would the extra sandboxing on Smartphones make pirating games on a Smartphone much safer compared to on a PC? (Not that there are much mobile games worth playing, just curious)

(PC in this context referring to all personal computers, regardless of OS)

And last question:

  • Non-installed/non-executable files such as .mp4 .mkv .mp3 .pdf .epub, are mostly safe right? I mean, you are using another program to opening it, not executing a file, there aren't much attack vectors as long as the video player / ebook viewer is up to date right? (Or am I understanding it wrong?)
54 comments
  • Any questionable software I have is coming up on 4 years old now, most of it is older than that. I move them to a new machine every time I upgrade, simply because I don't trust torrents anymore.

    Honestly, I don't trust PDFs anymore unless they're from places I know are "safe" which kind of sucks because I've been getting back into RC as a hobby and it's hard to find non-pdf plans. I prefer vector files, but I'm having to try my luck with jpg and png files.

    A lot of the programs I used to use have been surpassed by current FOSS projects, and I've been replacing them as I can. Finding an open source laser engraver program that isn't shit is proving difficult.

54 comments