14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, TorrentFreak reported that the premiere of the third season of the Game of Thrones TV show was the most pirated file of all times, with around one million downloads on the first day of its release alone.
However, experts warn that such records automatically attract the interest of cybercriminals who might rush to bundle the movie with dangerous pieces of malware.
Security experts have told PC Mag that it’s difficult for the cybercriminals to embed the malware into the actual video, but they have other tactics they can deploy.
For instance, they can store their malicious elements inside compressed files. They can also serve media files that require a certain video codec. This codec could be easily utilized to disguise a piece of malware.
A different technique involves password-protected files. Users are instructed to visit websites or send out emails to certain addresses to obtain the password.
In this case, the emails can be used for targeted phishing attacks, while the websites that allegedly hold the passwords could be set up to host exploit kits that serve malware.