4Download is a website where you can download tons of paid software and audio samples for free. From this website, you can download a cracked version of the software, meaning the paywall behind the software has been removed and can now be used freely.
Downloading content for such websites raises many legal, ethical and cybersecurity questions. For one, downloading cracked software is illegal in most countries. That said, your chances of landing in jail for a crime like this one are near zero.
When you download such software, you’re pirating the honest work of some of the most hard-working professionals in the industry and are participating in online piracy.
However, we are not here for a moral discourse on the subject. If you have previously downloaded or are thinking of downloading from 4Download, you may wonder if 4Download is safe to use.
Note: When we click on the 4Download.net link, we are redirected to another website by the name of 4mirrorlink.com.
In this article, we’re here to provide an answer to the above question in detail.
Safety assessment of 4Download
In truth, no website can be safe to use unless you implement cybersecurity measures from your side such as activating your antivirus software or scanning the downloaded files first before using it.
Other methods include running the file in a sandbox first and assessing it thoroughly before moving it to your computer or using the paid version of the software.
Virustotal
When we analysed 4mirrorlink on Virustotal, we found that four vendors flagged the website as malicious, while one vendor called it suspicious. This should be enough to ring the warning bells for you.
When we checked 4Downloads.net, we found that one vendor flagged the website as malicious. Here’s a screenshot for that too:
threatYeti
Then, we moved on to another threat intelligence platform, threatYeti by alphaMountain.
The platform analysed 4mirrorlink.com and flagged it as a high-risk website. Two reputed platforms have given red signals for this website.
We also checked 4Download.net, and we got a medium risk assessment by threatYeti:
MyWOT
Another website security platform, MyWOT, gave 4Download.net a security score of 68%, which is not good at all. Usually, reputed websites have a much higher security score.
If you check the review, you’ll see that 4Download has a 4/5 rating because only two people have reviewed the website. So, as of now, the review can not be taken at face value.
Scamadvisor
Interestingly, Scamadvisor gave a trust score of 100/100 to 4Download/4mirrorlink and claimed that “4mirrorlink.com is very likely not a scam but legit and reliable.”
But in the negative highlights of this website, Scamadvisor mentions that the website has been flagged earlier for hosting illegal content, and it offers software for download. Even after these negative highlights, why does the website have a trust score 100? It’s hard to say.
Since 4Download/4mirrorlink has no privacy policy, we couldn’t tell what data the website stores or shares with third parties.
We advise users to refrain from this website or any such website on the internet. Discarding the legal or ethical questions we pondered earlier, downloading from such websites can harm your computer and privacy.
It can be true that the website itself may not be harmful, although such websites have been known to add hidden malicious links, there is no guarantee that the stuff you downloaded from 4Download is legitimately safe. The website does not offer regular malware checkups of the software or has customer support or a forum to sort your problems.
So, you’re better off avoiding 4Download or its redirected site
Also read: Is Steamrip safe?
Some tips to protect yourself
If you have downloaded from such websites and are now worrying about the safety of your computer, here are some tips for you:
- Do not give system permissions to the software, as it is a clear case of malware.
- Check about the software on several forums and chatrooms before downloading them.
- Run the software on a sandbox before installing it on your computer.
- Run an antivirus scan on your computer if the device is slow or not running optimally.
Also read: Is Hexrom safe?
