Yinon Ben Shoshan

15/11/2021

Monday, 15 November 2021, 11:54 Updated: 13:07

Worrying: Leap in impersonation of online streaming services

From the beginning of 2020 to the last June of 2021, more than 93,000 attempts at fraud and impersonation of the major streaming services were identified - including Netflix and Apple TV Plus.

"Cybercriminals have adapted new methods to carry out their attacks"

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Watching Netflix (Photo: ShutterStock)

During the Corona period, when cinemas and concert halls closed and sporting events took place without an audience, streaming services recorded great popularity among the people left at home in front of the screen.

According to Nielsen, in 2020 viewing time increased by 75%.

Cyber-attackers have not remained indifferent to the influx of viewers after digital services and are trying their best to seize the opportunity to launch phishing attacks, steal personal information and carelessly charged credit card information.

From the beginning of 2020 to June 2021, the Kaspersky cyber defense company identified more than 93,000 attempts at fraud and impersonation of the world's largest streaming services such as Netflix, Disney + and Apple TV.

The series through which the attackers try to seduce the victims: The Mandalorian and the Paper House.

How does the method work?

Kaspersky explains that the scams are carried out by setting up fictitious sites that impersonate the popular services, as well as setting up phishing pages that ensure fast and free access to the most popular and coveted series.

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In collaboration with ManpowerGroup

More than 93,000 attempts to deceive and impersonate streaming services (Photo: ShutterStock)

Kaspersky also identified 8,650 different files that were defined as malicious in the attacks.

Most of the files downloaded from the fictitious sites that impersonate the popular services are predicted to be episodes from the most popular series on these platforms.

It is not surprising that the most common service focuses on most of the activities.

89.93% of the attacks detected used Netflix - meaning they impersonated the platform and tried to entice users with fake content offers for free.

Immediately after Netflix are ranked, by a considerable margin, other well-known platforms including Amazon Prime Video (6.26%), Apple TV (1.96%), Disney Plus (1.7%) and Hollow (1.44).

"More and more users are signing up for popular streaming services in order to watch their favorite content. Even though it is not necessary to download the content in order to watch it, and therefore it can be concluded that the number of attacks on users of these services will decrease, cybercriminals have adapted new methods. Explains Anton V. Ivanov, a security expert at Kaspersky.

Impersonating the Disney Plus service (Photo: AP)

A leap also in impersonating the shopping site

Cyber ​​Defense Point reports a 178% increase over the 2021 average in the number of malicious shopping sites set up for November known as "Online Shopping Month."

This is a record number of malicious sites compared to past tests.

According to the company, the number of malicious sites set up ahead of the shopping month (and actually mimicking reputable shopping sites) jumped during November to 5,300 malicious sites per week.

Today, 1 in 38 corporate networks in the world are infected (weekly) with damage as a result of browsing such malicious websites.

• technology

• Privacy and security

Tags

• fraud

• Cyber

• Netflix