Anti-Piracy Video Masquerades As Anti-Malware Education And Is Filled With Lies

from the trust-goes-both-ways dept

As some of you may be aware, Safer Internet Day just passed. Started in the EU, the day is supposed to be used to educate the masses on some dangers that are tangentially or directly connected to the internet, such as malware awareness, cyberbullying, or abuses on social media sites. It's also heavily supported by the Industry Trust for IP Awareness, which is a UK entertainment industry group that chiefly looks to "educate" the public on how super-awesome copyright is in every respect and how piracy and copyright infringement are the work of Satan.

In a video titled... and I can't believe I'm going to actually type this... Meet the Malwares, viewers in Australia are "educated" on exactly zero specific malware threats, but they are told that filesharing sites should be avoided completely. And if you're thinking that there are a ton of other parts of the internet that are far riskier, rest assured that the video insists it's all about file sharing sites.

What really caught our eye, however, is the statement that pirate sites are the most used propagation method for malware. “Did you know, the number one way we infect your device is via illegal pirate sites,” an animated piece of malware claims in the video. Forget about email attachments, spam links, compromised servers, or even network attacks. Pirate sites are the number one spot through which malware spreads. According to the video at least. But where do they get this knowledge?

As far as anyone can tell, the people behind the video just made this up. The Industry Trust for IP Awareness claimed that this was based on a paper from 2014, except nobody can find these figures in the paper either. The closest thing in that paper is the claim that illicit streaming websites for copyrighted content were the number one source for malware as 97% of them contain something malicious. But that claim was based on another unpublished study, and that unpublished paper's actual claim was that out of thirty pirate sites researched "90% contained malware or other potentially unwanted programmes." These unwanted programs include such everyday annoyances as popup ads. In other words, this whole response reads like a grade-schooler's made-up bibliography.

And none of that gets us even close to pirate sites being the number one way that malware spreads. The folks over at Malwarebytes, who know a thing or two on this topic, helpfully chimed in.

“These days, most common infections come from malicious spam campaigns and drive-by exploit attacks,” Adam Kujawa, Director of Malware Intelligence at Malwarebytes informs us. “Torrent sites are still frequently used by criminals to host malware disguised as something the user wants, like an application, movie, etc. However they are really only a threat to people who use torrent sites regularly and those people have likely learned how to avoid malicious torrents,” he adds.

Kujawa goes on to summarize that the claim in the video about pirate sites is generally inaccurate. Which, you know, lies about malware aren't really a great look from an organization with the stated mission of educating the public on malware. While you may not want to learn how to avoid malware, you should learn not to bother with any nonsense coming from the Industry Trust for IP Awareness.

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Filed Under: anti-malware, anti-piracy, copyright, education, malware, piracy, propaganda, safer internet day