# Abandoned Popcorn Time apps had to be disabled to prevent a zombie army

> **Key takeaway:** Remember Popcorn Time , the app that served as an easy-to-use front end for streaming torrents of movies and TV shows? Development of the MPAA's least-favorite app of the 2010s has been abandoned for years , but the "Netflix of Piracy" software is still installed on millions of devices that are just waiting to join a bot army.

**Published:** 2026-10-23T19:35:15+00:00 
**Source:** The Verge 
**Category:** foss-apps 
**Canonical URL:** https://fosswire.org/news/abandoned-popcorn-time-apps-had-to-be-disabled-to-prevent-a-.html 

## Summary
Remember Popcorn Time , the app that served as an easy-to-use front end for streaming torrents of movies and TV shows? Development of the MPAA's least-favorite app of the 2010s has been abandoned for years , but the "Netflix of Piracy" software is still installed on millions of devices that are just waiting to join a bot army. Researchers at Eye Security found the updater for a Popcorn Time fork called "Time4Popcorn" still running on tons of Windows, macOS, and Android devices located around the world, phoning home to now-abandoned web domains over unencrypted HTTP and running an outdated, insecure version of Chrome.