It is unfortunately yet inevitable that
pop culture has been one of the factors to some cases of cyberattacks. Just this past May, the height of the eighth and final
season of Game of Thrones saw a spike in related cybercriminal
activity. That's according to Kaspersky Lab researchers.
In fact, the premiere of each episode
was accompanied by a long tail of attacks targeting users who were
trying to download the newly-released episode. So instead of getting
the fresh upload, fans received malware disguised behind the name of
the show.
Some GoT S8 episodes proved
significantly more toxic than others, with its third showing
triggering the highest number of detected attempts to attack users,
reaching 3,000 attacks a day at its peak. That said, experts have
expected the release of the concluding episode attracted further
attacks from scammers as malware distributors start offering
potential viewers access to the complete season.
After tracking associated malicious
activity through the entire eighth season, Kaspersky lab researchers
have found that the average daily number of attacks on users that
involved malware disguised as an episode of Game of Thrones was
listed around 300-400. This number jumped to around 1,200 for the
three to four days following the release of each new episode: a three
to four-fold increase in malicious activity.
Another GoT-associated attack vector is
the streaming websites that invite users to watch newly-released Game
of Thrones episodes for free, but which are actually designed to
extract sensitive data from users. How does this take place?
Typically, the online-player icon shows a scene from the TV show and
redirects the victim to a registration page, later asking for bank
card details with the CVC/CVV-code, claiming it is only for
validation purposes. The said scheme was similar to the scams
surrounding the latest Avengers movie.
“We see shared TTPs (tactics,
techniques and procedures) across the phishing websites where
scammers try to steal users’ details by promising a pirated movie
before its official premiere. We believe there is a certain group of
threat actors that methodically hunt fans of popular movies and TV
productions, adjusting schemes dynamically according to pop-cultural
happenings,” said Tatyana Sidorina, a security researcher at
Kaspersky Lab.
To avoid falling victim to scammers:
● Avoid questionable websites,
especially the ones that distribute pirated content.
● Don’t enter any information —
especially credit card details — on a website you have no reason to
trust.
● Do not use the same password for
different web pages. Use a password manager instead.
● Use reliable antivirus software
with protection from online scams and phishing.
Learn more about Game of Thrones scams
on Kaspersky Daily
Author: slickmaster | © 2019 The SlickMaster's Files
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