PITTSBURGH -- Music sharing Web sites were created to help people share files. But Channel 11 has found that if you use certain sites you could be sharing more than just music and video files. You could be opening yourself up to identity theft.

Lime Wire, Bearshare, Kazaa and Morpheus are all Web sites that people use to expand their music and video collections by sharing files from hard drives. What many users don't realize is they could also be sharing everything else on their computer about their personal lives.

Robert Boback is the co-founder and CEO of Tiversa. It’s a Cranberry company that specializes in software that can protect a computer with peer-to-peer file sharing software on it.

Boback said, “What we're finding is individuals are using P2P (peer-to-peer) networking technology to access movies and music and unwittingly sharing more information than intending to. So they are inadvertently sharing items like tax returns, personal information, credit card information and that information is making way into hands of criminals.”

Boback explained that criminals use P2P networks to search an individual’s computer and download information and use it to commit fraud and identity using P2P networks to search individual’s computers and actually download that information and use that to commit fraud identity theft and other crimes.

Boback explained that criminals use P2P networks to search an individual's computer and download information to commit fraud or identity theft. It happens during the setup.

Depending on which options you choose, all your files could be available to everyone on the shared network and once someone gets access to your personal files that information could end up anywhere around the world in anyone's hands.

It's a dangerous game that Boback said he sees all the time.

“Over a two-day period we found over 200 classified highly classified documents available to the public on P2P networks. One of the documents found was the secret backbone network of the infrastructure for the Pentagon,” Boback said.

Anyone using file sharing software should pay attention during installation and understand what part of the computer is being shared. When downloading Lome Wire pay special attention to the default settings.

The Cranberry company uses high-tech security because it monitors global file sharing networks for the CIA and other government groups.

Tiversa's Rick Wallace showed Channel 11 just how easy it is to view someone's life online. Wallace typed in key words like Pittsburgh, bank, and tax return on Lime Wire's search engine. He quickly found sensitive information from Pittsburgh banks, confidential agreements, and power of attorney agreements.

A Channel 11 search on Lime Wire turned up contracts for several NFL players including members of the Steelers, Browns, Ravens and 49ers. That search also found detailed tax returns for two Pittsburgh businesses and educational assessments for local school children, as well as lots of personal pictures.

Wallace said, “Most people don't realize they are sharing their family photos.”

People don't have to use programs like Lime Wire to be affected, Boback said. A virus can come in an e-mail and still infect you even if you don’t open an attachment.

So the next time you log on to share, make sure you know what you're offering. Most firewall and intrusion detection software will not protect users from this problem, so setting up peer-to-peer software correctly is important.

Tiversa now offers a product for consumers that will let you know if your files have been compromised. For more information check out the Tiversa File Detector.