Filesharing notification popped up, without using filesharing

FSM

Hi everyone,

today on my machine the notification to turn on VPN while using filesharing popped up. However I was not using any filesharing, neither visited related websites nor have any software like this running. I'm not one hundred percent sure, whether the notification referred to file sharing websites or applications.

This is the first time I noticed this popup, usually I only get VPN notifications for financial websites.

Now I kind of worry whether I might have some kind of virus on my machine that uses file-sharing mechanisms to upload files - however an active scan did not find anything.

Do I need to worry about this? Is there any way to see, what triggered the notification?

I had a firefox running with mozilla startpage, and chrome browsing some legitimate website, both with adblock enabled.

Any advices?

Thanks,

Felix

Alexandru_BD

Hello @FSM,

Sometimes, VPN or security software can mistakenly interpret normal internet activity as file sharing. This could happen due to:

• Accessing websites with content delivery networks (CDNs) that use similar protocols.
• Visiting websites that have elements (like ads or embedded videos) hosted on servers that might use peer-to-peer (P2P) technology.

There might be legitimate applications or services running in the background that use file sharing protocols without your knowledge. Some examples include:

• Cloud storage services (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive) syncing files.
• Software updates or downloads that use P2P to distribute data efficiently.
• Other legitimate programs that use similar network activities (e.g., game updates, certain chat applications).

There’s also the possibility that the VPN notification was triggered incorrectly.

Regards,

Alex

FSM

Hi @Alexandru_BD ,

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. I use e.g. dropbox and google drive, so might have been that.

Also I scanned my computer very thoroughly, including a full scan with bitdefender in rescue environment and nothing was found, so I'll assume it's alright.