Cybercriminals Are Selling Stolen Streaming-Video-Service Logins

• McAfee’s new report on cybercrime shows some troubling trends.
• Public apathy surrounding data breaches may be compounding the problem.
• Video, music and other subscription service credentials are the latest targets for cybercriminals.

A new report by McAfee sheds some light on the world of Cybercrime-as-a-Service. While many people associate cybercrime with banks accounts or other big-money targets, the report shows that criminals often target something as simple as streaming video service login credentials.

The rise of “data breach fatigue”
According to McAffee, the hacking game may have become even easier for cybercriminals in recent years for a couple of reasons. First, people know by now that most banks and credit card companies will reimburse money lost in cases of identity fraud. While the process might be a mild inconvenience, there is no major monetary loss.

Second, the constant stream of stories about data breaches have left many people feeling that these types of breaches are inevitable, and they no longer feel a sense of shock or fear about cybercrime.

Data for sale
Unfortunately, the rise of cybercrime has produces a huge illegal data marketplace on the Dark Web, the Internet equivalent of the “bad side of town.” In addition to a marketplace for cybercrime services, bank account information, email addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and other stolen personal information, there is now a large market for stolen digital service subscription credentials.

Despite the fact that many music, video, loyalty program or other subscription services are relatively inexpensive, access many of these services are currently up for sale on the Dark Web.

Impact
McAfee found subscription credentials for sale to services such as Netflix, Inc. NFLX, Time Warner Inc TWX’s HBO Go, Comcast Corporation CMCSA's Xfinity TV GO and Walt Disney Co DIS’s WatchESPN and Marvel Unlimited. However, it’s not just these companies that are impacted. The legitimate owners of these hacked accounts can lose access to them, lose perks such as loyalty points, or suffer the loss of other personal information associated with the account.

McAfee continues to fight back against data breach fatigue, and the new report shows that there are still plenty of reasons to protect your data.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.