Did you get all excited about the Windows 7 RC, so instead of waiting till Microsoft released it you downloaded it on torrent? Turns out that prerelease version had a nasty botnet built into it. But don’t worry, you were not the only one, it is spreading at roughly 500 machines an hour.

Damballa reckons malicious hackers distributed the malware by hiding it within counterfeit copies of pre-release versions of Microsoft’s next operating system on offer through BitTorrent.

Damballa reckons that the pirated package was released around 24 April. By 10 May, when security researchers effectively curtailed the operation, as many as 552 new users were becoming infected per hour as a result of the attack.

“Since the pirated package was released on 24 April, my best guess is that this botnet probably had at least 27,000 successful installs

This means if you have not done so already, you need to get the official release from Microsoft. I will even be nice and give you the link right here.

(Via The Register.)