Watch movies for free online? EU study reveals users face THOUSANDS of malware threats when visiting sites that offer pirated digital content | Daily Mail

• Experts found the files hidden in fake game installers and other free software
• The 200GB of malicious files were analysed by law enforcement Europol
• This revealed websites containing malware were mainly hosted in the US
• Websites with .com domain names were also the most likely to contain malware

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Experts from the European Union Intellectual Property Office in Spain uncovered the files hidden in fake game installers and other free programmes that give hackers access to your device, as Daily Mail reports. 

Downloading movies illegally online isn't just putting you at risk of falling foul of the courts, a new study suggests. Thousands of users are putting themselves at risk of infection by malicious apps when they visit websites that offer pirated content (artist's impression).
Photo: European Union Intellectual Property Office 

Downloading and streaming movies illegally isn't just putting you at risk of falling foul of the law, according to a new study into malware.

Thousands of users are putting themselves at risk of infection by malicious apps when they visit websites that offer pirated content.

European Union (EU) researchers located 4 000 malicious files in their search, which originated from approximately 100 individually developed pieces of malware.

That includes fake game installers and free programmes to promise to let you access and stream pirated content, but actually give hackers access to your device...

The files extracted by the researchers came from sites and mobile applications suspected of sharing pirated films, music, video games and TV shows.

They were designed to lure users into sharing credit card details, social network logins or other personal data.

'Our previous research has shown that over half of digital natives say they consider the safety of a site to be a priority when accessing content online,' said Christian Archambeau, acting executive director of the EUIPO.

'Our findings are important for all online users, of whatever age, as they highlight the inherent dangers in copyright-infringing sites.

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Source: Daily Mail