Illicit streaming apps expose half of users to malware and botnets, study warns

Nearly half of all illicit streaming applications tested contain dangerous malware capable of harvesting personal data, compromising devices, and hijacking users into cybercrime botnets.

The findings were published in a landmark report, Consumer Harms and Fraud Pathways in Asia-Pacific’s Illicit Streaming Economy, released by the Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) during its annual roundtable at the APOS Summit in Bali.

Authored by cybersecurity researcher Professor Paul Watters, the study challenges the widespread public perception that piracy is a victimless, low-risk shortcut to expensive entertainment. Instead, it details a highly coordinated criminal ecosystem spanning illicit streaming devices (ISDs), unauthorized IPTV subscriptions, and account-sharing scams.

50% of the analyzed apps actively install tracking software, keyloggers, or background scripts that turn user devices into nodes for wider cyberattacks.

Consumers buying pirate credentials or subscriptions through online marketplaces or messaging apps routinely face advance-payment scams, credential theft, and total account takeovers.

Illicit sites aggressively use forced redirects to deliver phishing links and drive automatic malware downloads onto unsuspecting users' systems.

CAP General Manager Matthew Cheetham said the findings show the need to view digital piracy as a consumer protection and cybersecurity issue, not only as an intellectual property issue.

“For years, piracy has been framed primarily as a content theft problem. This research shows that it is increasingly a consumer harm problem,” Cheetham said.

Cheetham also echoed the warning, stating that the same criminal networks facilitating piracy are driving multi-layered cyber frauds. CAP is currently calling on e-commerce platforms, payment processors, and global governments to enforce stricter moderation and treat piracy as an active threat to national cybersecurity.

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