It’s one of the most popular TV series around, so it should come as no surprise that hackers are turning their attention to Game of Thrones.
A new study by researchers at the Kaspersky Lab has revealed that hackers are hiding malware in illegal downloads of the series.
The researchers looked at the data streams from millions of volunteers around the world, and found that 126,340 had encountered malware when downloading illegal copies of TV programmes in 2018.
In particular, Game of Thrones accounted for 17% of all the infected pirated content, with 20,934 users attacked.
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Delving deeper in to the findings, the researchers revealed that the first and least episodes of each Game of Thrones season were the most dangerous.
And ‘Winter Is Coming‘ – the very first episode of the programme – was the one most actively used by cybercriminals.
Kaspersky Labs said: “The best way to avoid falling victim of any hostile tactics and make sure you are not hit by a Trojan, which will to zombify your PC, but are going to safely enjoy yet another episode of your favourite TV series, is to use only legitimate sources of content.
“But even if you do follow that rule, stay alerted as it is quite possible to encounter malicious activity accidentally.”
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How to avoid malware
1. Pay close attention to website authenticity and do not visit them unless you are sure they are legitimate
2. Double-check the URL format or company name spelling before you download to make sure the website is genuine by
3. Make sure the file name doesn't end in .exe
4. Look up comments about the downloadable files. If comments are unrelated to the content, it's probably malware
5. Don’t click on suspicious links promising early premiere of the latest episodes
