Cybersecurity researchers on Sunday said they have discovered over 30 fraudulent websites and social media profiles disguised as official movie accounts of ''Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'' which are distributing free copies of the latest film in the franchise while collecting users' data.
Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky detected 285,103 attempts to infect 37,772 users seeking to watch movies of the popular space-opera series, signifying a 10 percent rise compared to last year, reports Indian News agency IANS.
"As attackers manage to push malicious websites and content up in the search results, fans need to remain cautious at all times. We advise users to not fall for such scams and instead enjoy the end of the saga on the big screen," said Tatiana Sidorina, a security researcher at Kaspersky.
Popular films are often used by cyber-criminals as bait to distribute malware, and the latest movie is no exception.
To further support the promotion of fraudulent websites, cyber-criminals have also set up Twitter and other social media accounts, where they distribute links to the content.
"Coupled with malicious files shared on torrents, this brings the criminals results. So far, 83 users have already been affected by 65 malicious files disguised as copies of the upcoming movie," said security researchers.