Content security risk is usually talked about in terms of studios losing money; but there’s another cost to consider: Internet users are 28 times more likely to be infected by malware if they use content theft sites.
A RiskIQ study has uncovered that content piracy is a $70 million underground market for cyber-criminals, preying on those who don’t want to pay for things like the latest season of
Game of Thrones or the
Walking Dead—the two
most-pirated TV shows last year. And in fact, pirated TV and
movies are among the most popular types of digital bait for malware purveyors, with one out of every three content theft sites exposing users to bad code.
Further, most of that activity is also done via drive-by downloads: nearly half (45%) of the malware is delivered without requiring the user to click on anything on the site.
"It's clear that the criminals who exploit stolen content have diversified to make more money by baiting consumers to view videos and songs and then stealing their IDs and financial information," said Tom Galvin, executive director of the
Digital Citizens Alliance, which commissioned the study. "It's criminal behavior, and it should be a wake-up call for consumers as well as law enforcement that a new front must open in the battle against cyber-criminals and malware peddlers exploiting Internet users."
