The Mandalorian tops list of most dangerous streaming content — here's why

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The Mandalorian tops listing of about dangerous streaming content — here's why

(Epitome credit: Disney)

Who's the most unsafe streaming-video character out in that location? The Mandalorian, that's who!

And so says Russian antivirus firm Kaspersky, which has concluded that the Star Wars character's eponymous Disney Plus series is among the streaming shows and movies most frequently used by cybercriminals when they're trying to fob unsuspecting victims into installing malware, or luring victims to phishing websites.

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"It appears that this bully bear witness attracts not merely viewers around the world but as well cybercriminal interest," said Anton V. Ivanov, head of Kaspersky's Advanced Threats Enquiry and Detection Team.

Among the most highly acclaimed streaming movies and TV shows up for awards consideration in 2021, The Mandalorian snagged 68% of all malware-infection attempts observed by Kaspersky in the first 3 weeks of January.

Netflix'south chess thriller The Queen'southward Gambit was a distant second with only 11%, while stablemate Ozark was third with 6%.

Things were a footling more balanced in February. The Mandalorian was however tops, just its share of malware-infection attempts had dropped to 33%, while The Queen's Gambit's slice rose to 19%. In 3rd identify, Ozark was usurped past the Andy Samberg time-loop one-act Palm Springs, which had 14%.

Good erstwhile-fashioned phishing scams using streaming content had their place too. Kaspersky found one offering up streams and downloads of the Carey Mulligan revenge comedy-drama Promising Young Woman, as seen below.

(Image credit: Screen grab by Kaspersky)

Such bogus streams are actually trying to steal passwords and credit cards, Kaspersky noted.

Information technology goes without maxim that nearly of these scams are related to dodgy websites where people try to watch paid content for free. We'll skip the moralizing, but please remember that while some pirated-content sites and streams are prophylactic to watch, you tin can never be certain. It'due south far safer to just pay upward and watch that motion-picture show or Tv set prove through legal avenues.

If you actually must watch pirated content, then take precautions. Install ane of the best antivirus products on your PC or Mac to grab any malicious files that might piggyback on your stream. Use that antivirus software to scan annihilation you download BEFORE you install that movie player, or play that file.

Every bit Kaspersky warns, y'all should also cheque the file extension of what you're downloading: "A video file volition never have an .exe or .msi extension."

Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom's Guide focused on security and privacy. He has also been a dishwasher, fry melt, long-haul driver, code monkey and video editor. He's been rooting around in the information-security space for more than fifteen years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom'south Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown up in random TV news spots and even moderated a panel discussion at the CEDIA home-technology conference. You can follow his rants on Twitter at @snd_wagenseil.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/dangerous-streaming-mandalorian

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