Kansas AG, Digital Citizens Alliance warn of online piracy dangers

[bsaambl]

A new partnership between the Kansas Attorney General and the Digital Citizens Alliance warns that even a little bit of illegal activity online could hit your wallet hard.

The warning comes after a study shows that piracy websites are now a major source of malware, essentially a virus that infects your computer and steals things like your identity or credit card information.

The study shows that one-third of those sites exposed visitors to malware and some of the content was considered "drive-by," which means that the virus can be installed on your computer without you even having to clock on any of it.

A list of some of the most popular sites to watch out can be found here

These sites pose a risk with illegal content that can be downloaded.

That means if you see your kids with movies or games that you didn't know about, you may want to think about checking your Internet history to make sure they aren't visiting the potentially-dangerous websites.

Research from one consumer protection group shows content thieves are making about $70 million per year by allowing groups that distribute malware to include code that exposes your computer.