If the Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, has made you want to watch a particular movie, and you are looking to download it from an illegal website, think again.
You could become a victim of a phishing attack or worse, as cybercriminals too have become a “fan” of the Oscars, capitalising on the spike in illegal downloads.
Multinational cybersecurity and antivirus company Kaspersky said in a statement that its researchers looked into the prevalence of such scams and found over 20 phishing websites and 925 malicious files disguised as this year’s nominated films.
The phishing websites gather users’ data by tricking them into thinking that they would be given access to the movie after they carry out a variety of tasks.
These can vary from taking a survey and sharing personal details to installing adware or even giving up credit card details.
“Needless to say that at the end of the process the user doesn’t get the content,” it said in the statement.
Kaspersky also looked into whether there was a significant rise in malicious files just after the public release of a film.
It found that most malicious files appeared during the third or fourth week after the cinema release, although some were distributed even before the premiere.
The researchers also wanted to know which nominated movie was the most popular with cybercriminals during the first four weeks of the public premiere of the film.
Joker took “first place” with 304 malicious files named after the movie, 1917 came in second with 215 malicious files and The Irishman was third with 179 files.
“To avoid being tricked by criminals, stick to legal streaming platforms and subscriptions to ensure you can enjoy a nice evening in front of the TV without having to worry about any threats,” said Anton Ivanov, Kaspersky malware analyst.
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