Future MP3 virus a possibility

Most computer users should already be familiar with the term MP3, as it is the nowpopular technology that revolutionised the way we listen to music.
At the moment, it is being used to compress the file size of a song or audio file, making it easily accessible for download for anyone with a computer and an internet connection. These MP3 files have been completely safe and riskfree to date, however, it appears this could all change in the near future.
Plans for the familiar MP3 technology may be about to change, as programmers and coders have been looking at the possibility of embedding matching film clips for the songs.
So, while listening, the user can also watch the matching film clip as on any normal music video.
However, enabling MP3 files to have embedded coding or content could have a drastic effect and introduce a whole range of security and virus issues for computer users worldwide.
With the MP3 technology open to embed music video clips, this could quite possibly also be used to embed Java or even other programming languages that could easily be used to infect a computer upon execution of the file.
All it would take is to download the wrong song, and upon playing or listening to the file, you would be unleashing a virus or other damaging scripting commands onto your machine.
The effects of this could be unbelievably damaging on a global scale. Think of the number of people who use the internet to download MP3 files, whether at home, school or work.
They could be putting their and even others’ computer systems at risk, which could result in untold costs in computer damages.
With the amount of media sharing services available today, it seems everybody who has a computer connection seems to have a copy of KaZaa or WinMX installed.
Services such as these allow the complete sharing of all media files, including MP3, which would make all of your MP3 files available for download for anyone else with access to the service.
With the introduction of these possible virusinfected files, users could be unaware they are sharing many files which are infected and could have anywhere between a dozen and thousands of other people downloading them.
Once they have downloaded, they would then go on to also share that same infected file, which could be downloaded by their friends, which could be downloaded by their friends, and the cycle goes on. The effects of such a virus carrier could be quite devastating.
Users can rest assured for the moment as MP3s don’t look to be changing any time soon, but keep an eye and an ear out and be wary of any such MP3s you may see in the near future.
The effects of just playing a file could be quite catastrophic to your computer.