Trying to illegally stream the new Star Wars movie could open you up to cyber attacks

The new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hit cinemas in Australia yesterday, but anti-virus company Kaspersky says cyber criminals are already using the film to attempt to attract streamers to compromised websites in order to steal their credit card information.

Kaspersky Labs have identified over 30 fake websites and social media profiles purporting to offer streams of the film on the internet.

The scam uses the quite professional looking profiles and websites to push users to a website which appears to offer people the option to stream the movie for free, but only once they’ve ‘verified’ themselves by entering in their credit card information.

The scam is working too with Kaspersky reporting that ‘83 users have already been affected by 65 malicious files disguised as copies of the upcoming movie‘.

Popular movies and TV shows are often used for attacks by cybercriminals says Tatiana Sidorina, security researcher at Kaspersky

“It is typical for fraudsters and cybercriminals to try to capitalize on popular topics, and ‘Star Wars’ is a good example of such a theme this month. As attackers manage to push malicious websites and content up in the search results, fans need to remain cautious at all times. We advise users to not fall for such scams and instead enjoy the end of the saga on the big screen.“

The launch of the ninth film in the series has seen an increase in attacks targeting Star Wars fans, with a 10% increase from last year – they noted 285,103 attempts to infect 37,772 — noted by Kaspersky in the past 12 months.

The film is now in theatres in Australia and a number of other markets, but won’t be hitting other markets such as the Philippines and Vietnam until early in the new year, perhaps prompting some users to look at other avenues for watching the movie before the massive wave of spoilers hits.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has taken over most movie theatres in Australia, so rather than attempting to save a few dollars by pirating it, paying the ticket price at the theatre is fairly easy to do, and definitely worth it.