Irdeto

The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and Irdeto have partnered to combat poaching and wildlife crimes online. The illegal selling of animal parts is the fourth biggest illicit industry worldwide behind drugs, counterfeit goods and human trafficking. These wildlife crimes not only decimate animal populations but also have a negative effect on the entire ecosystem, impacting local economies that rely on these ecosystems for tourism. By joining forces, AWF and Irdeto aim to protect animals from these crimes by leveraging Irdeto’s suite of cybersecurity services and technologies to investigate, identify and disrupt the sale of animal parts on the internet. The partnership will also work with local law enforcement, providing key forensic data and intelligence to help locate and arrest the criminals responsible for this illegal trading.

“The global illegal wildlife trade generates between $7 billion and $23 billion in illicit revenue every year,” said Kaddu Sebunya, president, AWF. “Our mission is to ensure wildlife and wild lands thrive in modern Africa. If this illicit industry continues to thrive, then our mission is in jeopardy. Together with Irdeto, we have an incredible opportunity to bring about a positive change, disrupt this illicit industry and make a positive impact on wildlife in Africa as well as across the globe.”

AWF is an international conservation organisation that focuses on critically important landscapes in Africa, including strategies designed to protect the wildlife and wild lands of Africa and ensure a more sustainable future for Africa’s people. Irdeto and AWF’s strategic partnership not only identifies different types of wildlife crimes across digital channels, but also provides the evidence needed to prosecute poachers and wildlife criminals. By disrupting illegal activities, this partnership can make a difference and ensure that endangered and threatened wildlife species are around for future generations.

“We are in a unique and lucky position to be able to use our cybersecurity expertise and technology for good,” said Doug Lowther, CEO, Irdeto. “When we announced to employees our intention to kickstart this philanthropic wildlife initiative, I was tremendously encouraged by the outpouring of support and the eagerness to get involved in this cause. The passion from our team was there, we just needed a like-minded partner that shared our enthusiasm for this cause. We have found that partner in AWF and I am proud that we can harness our expertise and technology for a good and just cause.”

To learn more about this cause, click here.

Hundreds of stolen login details for popular OTT services are available every month on the dark web for an average of only US$8.81, potentially putting consumers at risk and impacting OTT revenues, according to new research by Irdeto. Via dark web marketplaces, a variety of products, accounts and services can be bought, including account credentials for a range of pay TV and Video on Demand (VOD) OTT services. This means that legitimate subscribers could have had their accounts compromised and used illegally for a small one-off fee. Consumers should therefore be vigilant of any unusual or unfamiliar activity on their account, changing their password regularly.

The Irdeto Global Consumer Piracy Threat Report looks at pay TV credential availability on the dark web, global piracy hotspots and the market in illicit streaming devices (ISD’s). The report provides advice for content owners and rights holders and analyses the threat to consumers, outlining how they can be vigilant and avoid the risks of digital piracy. Additional key findings from the report include:

• Widespread availability of stolen OTT credentials – In one month (April 2018), Irdeto discovered 854 listings of OTT credentials from 69 unique sellers across more than 15 dark web marketplaces. These credentials were from 42 different OTT services including Netflix, HBO, DirecTV and Hulu.
• Live streaming piracy is a global problem – Irdeto’s web analytics partner found an average of 74 million total global visits per month (and an average of 21 million unique visits) to the top ten live streaming sites in Q1 2018. Most traffic came from the US (2 934 000 average monthly unique visits), the UK (1 714 000 average monthly unique visits) and Germany (1 519 000 average monthly unique visits)
• Ads for “fully-loaded” boxes continue to spring up – Pirates are using popular ecommerce sites to advertise ISD’s, which are often advertised around major sporting events. For example, Irdeto identified 180 advertisements for ISD’s offering Joshua vs. Parker on e-commerce websites, including eBay and Gumtree in just one day in the week leading up to the fight. So far in 2018, Irdeto has worked to take down almost 7  000 adverts for ISDs across 60 domains.

“Content theft by pirates has become a full-fledged criminal enterprise, with some providing illegal subscriptions in an attempt to compete with established pay TV operators. Content owners, rights holders, technology and security partners and law enforcement agencies are working hard to combat the threat of piracy. However, consumers must also be vigilant to avoid the risks they may be subject to from illegal content,” said Mark Mulready, vice president – Cybersecurity Services, Irdeto.

“Consumers must think about where they access their content from and ensure that any streaming or downloading is done from legitimate sources. They must also remember that if they use the same password for their OTT services as they do for a number of other online accounts, they could also be opening themselves up to a wider array of exploitative threats.”

Click here to download the full report.

Consumers who prefer piracy over legal video sites are ensuring that peer-to-peer (P2P) piracy continues to be the major method of accessing illegal copies of movies and TV shows, according to new research from Irdeto and a web analytics partner. The research also finds that the growth in web video piracy is only adding to the global movie and TV piracy problem, rather than replacing P2P piracy.

The overall popularity of pirate web video sites is growing alongside P2P, driven by visits from “casual pirates,” who go to both legitimate sites and illegal piracy sites. Five out of ten monthly visits to pirate sites by casual pirates in 2017 were to web video sites. However, in 2017, eight out of ten monthly visits to pirate sites by “committed pirates” (those who do not visit legitimate streaming sites) were to P2P sites.

The research also found that visits to P2P sites accounted for 70 per cent of global activity for both web video and P2P platforms. This behavior led to an average of 800 million global monthly downloads from P2P sites in 2017. In addition, P2P activity in the most prominent high-piracy countries, which include Russia, India, Brazil, the Netherlands and the U.S, is either constant or increasing. The research reveals that web video sites source a significant proportion (28 per cent) of their high-quality video content from P2P sites.

“While many expect P2P piracy to be taken over by streaming and direct downloads, it’s clear that this has not happened yet. P2P piracy is still a big threat to the industry, in which the overall piracy problem is growing,” said Peter Cossack, vice president, Cybersecurity Services, Irdeto. “While the increase in bandwidth and social media has facilitated growth in content redistribution piracy, particularly around live sporting events, it is clear that other forms of piracy are not going away any time soon. This must be considered by content owners and rights holders in their security strategies.”

Click here to view the full report.