An EU study puts an end to the false myth that pirate websites are full of viruses

[Blexfraptor]

Depending on the pirate websites you have visited, you may have noticed that some of them redirect you to ads or content related to malware. It is not usually the norm, but usually some usually open content that the antivirus identifies as dangerous and happens to block. Now, an EU study has wanted to shed light to quantify how many websites do this.

The industry often uses the argument that pirated web pages are full of viruses and malware to keep users away from them. For this reason, the Intellectual Property Office of the European Union (EUIPO) has worked to select a series of po[CENSORED]r websites to download pirated content, which were easily accessible and po[CENSORED]r in the selected countries. Ten countries of the 28 members were randomly selected, since it was not possible to make a study covering the 28. Among those 10 is not Spain.

They chose 20 titles, among which included five movies, series, music and games for their po[CENSORED]rity, which were searched among the most po[CENSORED]r websites to see how many malware or potentially unwanted programs jumped. In total, they analyzed 1,054 pages in a first round in the summer of 2017, and 1,057 in the second, collecting the malware automatically and manually. Ad blockers were not used, and all the links and suspicious buttons were clicked, which can greatly bias the results.

Between 7 and 8% of the websites were classified as "malicious"
The authors also analyzed the websites on VirusTotal to see if those websites had been related to viruses and malware in the past. The figure of results was between 7 and 8% in those cases, which is not very high. In the process they collected thousands of files, and detailed how websites used techniques to steal users' personal data, with tools that claimed to block ads, offer real programs, licenses, or provide access to illegal content.

Afterwards, they proceeded to order the files in various categories. The former divided them into four: benign, potentially undesirable programs, malware, and malware / PUP.

They were also divided into other categories, such as fake installers, streaming software and useful software.

Finally, they divided the malware found in Trojan, adware, backdoor and agent.

 

After analyzing all the data, the researchers did not find any particularly harmful software, such as ransomware or botnets, but most were Trojans, which included adware or backdoors. However, some did have malware that downloaded more harmful files, such as keyloggers, software for altering content on the network, or rootkits.

In short, the conclusion of the study is that "currently, websites suspected of copyright infringement and illegal streaming services are not considered as sources where malware or other unwanted software predominates. However, in the future they may represent a greater risk. "

To avoid the possible risks of visiting these types of websites, it is advisable to have a good antivirus that blocks the download of any of these files. In the case of Android, you should not install any APK downloaded from outside the Play Store, and if done, you must review all permissions to the millimeter.