Warning: Phishing and malware attacks bait the premiere of the latest Star Wars

Popular movies are often used by "digital criminals»As bait for malware distribution and the latter Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is no exception.

Φyear, the last film of the trilogy, caught the attention of the attackers even before its premiere, with fraudulent websites and malicious files flooding the internet.

Movies are one of the main forms of entertainment that users seek to gain free access to, creating fertile ground for digital attacks. Online streaming, torrents and other digital distribution methods often infringe copyright, but they remain a popular source of free content.

Torrent-trackers and illegal streaming platforms pose a threat to users' digital security, as they can host malicious files hidden behind movie file names. Given this trend, Kaspersky has studied the ways in which digital criminals took advantage of the Star Wars name to deceive fans of the series.

The public interest in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which is released on December 19, has also attracted the interest of digital criminals. Kaspersky's investigators have identified more than 30 fraudulent websites and social media profiles, which were presented as official movie accounts (the actual number of these sites may be much larger) that allegedly distributed free copies of the latest movie. These sites collect the credit card details of carefree users, under the pretext of the necessary registration on the site.

Website domains used to collect personal data and distribute malicious files typically copy the official name of the movie and provide detailed descriptions and supportive content, leading users to believe that the site is somehow linked to the official movie.

This practice is called "Black SEO", and allows criminals to promote phishing websites high in search engine results (such results often appear for search terms such as "name-movie free watch").

To further support the promotion of fraudulent websites, digital criminals have also set up Twitter and other social media accounts, where they distribute links to content. Combined with malicious files shared on torrents, this brings criminals the desired results. So far, 83 users have been affected by 65 malicious files presented as copies of the movie.

Phishing is not the only way in which digital criminals use popular movies to their advantage. As with popular TV shows, they often disguise malware as yet another episode in the story.

In 2019, Kaspersky detected 285.103 attempts to "infect" 37.772 users looking for movies in the popular movie series, indicating a 10% increase over the previous year. The number of unique files used by targeted users rose to 11.499 - a 30% drop from the previous year. The data show that even years after the movie premiere, a significant number of users are still searching for malicious files in the hope of watching popular space adventures for free.

To avoid falling prey to malicious programs that pretend to be popular movies or TV series, Kaspersky recommends the following steps:

• Pay attention to official movie release dates in cinemas, streaming services, TV, DVDs, or other sources.
• Do not click on suspicious links, such as those that promise to show a new movie before it premieres. Check movie release dates at the cinema first.
• Check the extension of the downloaded file. Even if you are going to "download" videos from a source that you consider reliable and legal, the file should have the extension .avi, .mkv or .mp4 among other video formats, certainly not .exe.
• Check the authenticity of the website. Do not visit sites that allow you to watch a movie until you are sure they are legitimate and start with "https".
• Verify that the website is genuine by double-checking the URL format or the spelling of the company name, reading reviews about it, and checking the domain's data before downloading begins.

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