KickassTorrents – Is It Safe to Use in 2022?

What Is KickassTorrents?

KickassTorrents is one of the most reputable programs out there, whose main purpose is to provide a large database of torrents for users. However, given that these torrents are often uploaded by third-parties of unknown character and these websites often cause redirects to risky URLs, like scams or malware, KickassTorrents may not be among the safest choices for online browsing.

Read this article to learn further information concerning KickassTorrents and what steps you can take to get rid of any threats you might suspect of having completely from your computer system.

KickassTorrents – Details

Name	KickassTorrents
Type	Malware / PUP / Auto-Download / Redirects
Short Description	A lot of redirects may show up on this domain. It may change multiple settings on your web browsers in order to begin slithering a lot of different ads.
Symptoms	You may begin to witness a lot of ads on the web browsers of your Mac and questionable software may be downloaded as a result of that.
Distribution Method	Through different browser redirects and infected torrents.
Detection Tool	See If Your Device Has Been Affected by KickassTorrents redirects or torrents: Download Malware Removal Tool
User Experience	Join Our Forum to Discuss KickassTorrents.

KickassTorrents – How Can You Become Compromised?

The official website KickassTorrents was originally seized by the authorities for copyright infringement:

This has resulted in a lot of “spin-off” type of copycat domains to begin showing up in the wild – each carrying different risks to users:

• https://kickass(dot)onl (believed to be the original)
• kickasstorrents(dot)to
• Kat(dot)ag
• Kat(dot)am
• Kat(dot)rip
• Kickasstorrents(dot)cr
• Kickass(dot)cm
• Kickasstorrents(dot)pw
• Kickass2(dot)top
• Kickass2(dot)fun
• Kickass2(dot)xyz

KickassTorrents or its sub-domain copies could compromise computers via two main methods:

• By causing browser redirects to dangerous third-party domains.
• By downloading different types of torrents, uploaded by third-parties of unknown origin.

KickassTorrents – What Does It Do?

Visiting one of the KickassTorrents domains may land you on a web page, that may appear similar to the following:

During the course of our research, we have also noticed cookies, related to multiple third-party websites, including the Yandex search engine.

Besides these cookies, the web page encryption was secure, meaning it had an SSL certificate.

KickassTorrents is the kind of website (or websites) that when checked causes redirects via a lot of ads to multiple third-party domains that may be dangerous:

• Highlighted text on the pages you visit.
• Interruptive banner ads.
• Redirects.
• Pop-ups with video and/or sound.
• Changed search results to show ads instead of relevant sites.
• Intrusive push notifications.

KickassTorrents include tracking objects

KickassTorrents may use these trackers to obtain various sorts of details during its data collection activities:

• IP and Mac addresses.
• Your mouse movements.
• The browsing history from your browser.
• What searches you have made.
• Your bookmarked websites.
• What you have visited.
• Your mouse clicks.
• Different personally identifiable information you may type.

Is KickassTorrents a Legit Website?

KickassTorrents is a legitimate website and one of the largest torrent trackers, but not all over the world. KickassTorrents has also been reported to cause different kinds of ads on devices, which is a behaviour that is characterised by adware applications. This is a risk for your device as the more you use it, the higher the chance of your device becoming compromised by redirects to sites, like:

• Rogue software download sites.
• Survey sites that are fraud.
• Phishing pages.
• Tech support fraud pages.
• URLs, containing a virus infection file or script.
• Web pages that contain scams.
• Redirects to dangerous sites via multiple pay-per-click redirects.

This is also known as malvertising and carries certain risks. Some of them are even causing an infection to your machine, because of Ransomware, Trojans, Rootkits and other such malware. Other problematic types of websites this could lead include scams and also phishing.

KickassTorrents – Pros and Cons

KickassTorrents has several benefits if you want to use it, but also some significant drawbacks:

Pros:

1. A lot of torrents.
2. Its trackers are frequently updated.
3. Users gain access to torrents they would not otherwise find on the net.
4. Download speed is ok.
5. Has a huge community behind it.

Cons:

1. It is a problem to download patches or cracks.
2. A lot of redirects can occur to unknown websites.
3. May use third-party cookies that collect different information from your device.
4. Dangerous torrents may be uploaded and may infect your device with malware.
5. Has a lot of copycat websites that pretend to be it, but are packed full of malware and scripts.

What To Do If Compromised by KickassTorrents Redirects?

In case you believed that your device has been compromised in one way or another by KickassTorrents, then our main advice is to make sure and check your device for malware. There are several ways to do this, but if you want the fastest and easiest solution, then scanning your machine with a professional anti-malware is something which we would strongly advise doing. Such a software is often recommended by experts as it has the capability of automatically checking, detecting and deleting any malware currently hidden on you machine.

See if your system has been affected by malware or other threats:

Spy Hunter scanner will only detect the threat. If you want the threat to be automatically removed, you need to purchase the full version of the anti-malware tool.Find Out More About SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool / How to Uninstall SpyHunter

Ventsislav Krastev

Ventsislav is a cybersecurity expert at SensorsTechForum since 2015. He has been researching, covering, helping victims with the latest malware infections plus testing and reviewing software and the newest tech developments. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for learning new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management, Network Administration and Computer Administration of System Applications, he found his true calling within the cybersecrurity industry and is a strong believer in the education of every user towards online safety and security.

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