Streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime were becoming the number one way in which people watched their favorite TV shows and movies before the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020. Since the pandemic forced countless people to stay at home for long periods, subscriptions to popular streaming services have skyrocketed.
In fact, research from Deloitte found that consumers who created an account with a streaming service paid for an average of five subscriptions. The average was three before the pandemic, showing that COVID-19 motivated people to identify even more sources to binge on their favorite TV shows and movies.
Netflix is by far the most popular online streaming service in 2021, with more than 200 million subscribers globally and 74 million in the US and Canada. It is followed by Amazon Prime (150 million worldwide), Disney + (94.9 million worldwide), and Hulu (35.4million worldwide). Such statistics prove that the streaming industry is increasing in popularity, and with COVID-19 likely to be around for a while yet, we will see even more clients looking online for their entertainment.
Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the boom in streaming services
Unfortunately, it’s not just consumers looking to benefit from the increase in the choice of streaming subscriptions. According to Mimecast, early in 2021, they detected the registration of more than 700 suspicious domains that were designed to impersonate Netflix in just one week. These phishing attacks are unnervingly common, with Google revealing that they block 18 million malicious and phishing emails with coronavirus lures every day.
As well as phishing attacks, hackers also perform ‘credential stuffing,’ which is where they utilize large databases of stolen credentials via automated bots to gain access to user accounts on particular streaming sites. Disney + reported that they fell victim to credential stuffing back in 2019 when many of their user’s personal details were stolen.
Whether hackers conduct credential stuffing, brute force, or account takeover attacks, the result is the same: the theft of personal data that they can sell. While streaming services are working hard to prevent attacks from happening, the sheer volume of attempts makes it difficult to provide 100% protection from cybercriminals. As such, consumers have to take some responsibility for their own internet security.
Users are taking responsibility for their own online security
With hackers utilizing so many ways to extract and steal personal data, it’s not enough for users to simply rely on their computer software and the guarantees offered by streaming services to protect them from cybercriminals. More and more people are taking their security into their own hands by bolstering their devices with a number of additional tools.
If you follow the recent cybersecurity news, you will know 31% of global internet users access content via a VPN in 2021 in an effort to protect themselves from hackers. VPNs encrypt user data, making it useless to hackers and helping users spoof their location by hiding their IP address. This is super helpful if you’re using a streaming service, as it gives you the opportunity to access geo-blocked content that you may wish to watch.
What’s more, users are getting serious about using unique passwords when accessing content from different streaming sites. If you use the same password for every site you access, you put yourself at added risk. This is because if a hacker manages to get into one of your accounts, they will use the same details to try and get into others. If your password and email address are the same on all of your accounts, they can access personal data from a range of sources.
Another way that users are protecting their data is by making use of password managers. The main reason why people use the same password for every account is that it’s easy to remember. Whether it’s your password to catch up with Breaking Bad on Netflix or your Gmail email account password, use a password manager. You can randomly generate passwords for all of your accounts, and all you need to do is remember the master password to enter the manager. Although it sounds like a lot of hassle to set up, it’s actually a straightforward and effective way of protecting your accounts online and means you don’t have to worry about hackers getting into all of your accounts with one password.
With subscriptions to online streaming services expected to keep rising in the near future, it’s vital that users take the necessary steps to protect themselves from cybercriminals. If they don’t, they risk falling victim to the ever-increasing range of attacks and are at risk of having their personal data hacked.
