Hackers steal bank cards inviting victims to watch a new episode of Star Wars

At the end of last week, December 19, 2019, the final part of the new trilogy, Star Wars: Skywalker, was released. Voskhod, and Kaspersky Lab experts warn that over 30 fraudulent websites and social media accounts offer a free copy of it.

Phishing sites typically use the official name of the movie and include a detailed description to make users believe the source is legitimate. This practice is called “black SEO”, it allows attackers to bring the resources they developed to the top of search results: they appear first as a result of the search if you type the name of the movie and add “watch for free” to it. To promote fraudulent sites, cybercriminals also create accounts on social networks.

At the same time, phishing is not the only way that scammers earn on Star Wars. Under the guise of individual episodes of the space saga, they hide on streaming services and torrents of various malware, including: malware, adware, as well as downloaders, which themselves do not harm the machine, but try to gain a foothold in the system and can continue to display ads or Offer to install additional unwanted programs.

So, in 2019, Kaspersky Lab blocked more than 285,000 such attacks in the world – this is 10% more than last year. At the same time, the number of unique files, on the contrary, decreased by 30% and amounted to less than 12,000.

“Fraudsters regularly try to capitalize on popular franchises, and Star Wars is a prime example. Phishing sites, malicious files that exploit the name of the movie, turn out to be the efforts of attackers in the top of the list, so fans of the epic need to be extremely careful. We recommend that all fans of the space saga, in order to avoid encountering cyber threats, allow themselves to enjoy the final episode on the big screen or in official online cinemas, ”said Tatyana Sidorina, senior content analyst at Kaspersky Lab.