ShareSniffer's creator, long-time programmer Kerry Rogers, says it has valid uses, such as allowing people to share files over the Internet. That could be. You don't have to be on the road and using an exposed Internet connection to be vulnerable. Millions of people are exposed to ShareSniffer and other file-sharing attacks without knowing it. And those are the ones who are concerned enough about privacy to check it out.
Most consumers have little or no security on their home or office networks.
Users who configure their computers for file sharing often inadvertently make their files accessible to the Internet as well. That's the unique number that identifies a computer on the Internet. Discovering a computer network with exposed files has always been possible. But for an aspiring hacker, it required painstaking grunt work. The Internet comprises more than 4 billion IP addresses.