Europol’s April 30 report “Beyond the pandemic: how COVID-19 will shape the serious and organised crime landscape in the EU,” makes no specific mention of video piracy. Instead, it takes a broader view of the impact of the pandemic on all forms of crime, and anticipates how criminal activity by individual criminal elements and by organized crime will evolve over time.
Cybercriminals stepped up phishing and malware attacks in March and early April, implanting ransomware that runs immediately rather than being timed for an opportune moment; but these started to taper off by the end of April.
Now and into the long term, many changes in life-style – including the shifts to digital services, tele-working and online shopping – are expected to become permanent. These greatly increase the number of ways that consumers can be attacked by cybercriminals.
Read the entire Europol report
Why it matters
While this report doesn’t specifically call out phishing attacks against digital video subscribers, it’s noteworthy to see that criminals are capitalizing on phishing and cybercrimes in this time – and further cause for consumers to be vigilant.
It’s also important for consumer-facing broadband and video access providers to be responsible for policing their networks and traffic for cybercrime and content theft.
