Consumers, small businesses and corporations have become more vulnerable to hackers and cyber-pirates during the pandemic, according to Tom Galvin, CEO of Digital Citizens Alliance (DCA), a consumer-focused group dedicated to raising awareness among the public and policymakers about how to make the Internet safer.
In the Podcast Interview The Multi-Billion-Dollar Piracy Industry with copyright advocate The Illusion of More’s David Newhoff, Galvin said: “Piracy has long been viewed as an annoyance or a conflict between creators and pirates. But when you get a criminal enterprise as large as piracy, you get a lot of side effects including malware, click fraud and harm to brands.
“It’s become a much more significant issue during the pandemic with a lot of people and companies working from home. It’s become a bit of [shooting] fish in a barrel for hackers and pirates to be able to target them,” Galvin said. “It even goes so far as click fraud and a previous case we saw where piracy ended up circumventing a ban on terrorist channels being able to broadcast in the United States via piracy channels.”
Newhoff and Galvin analysed the report Breaking (B)ads: How Advertiser-Supported Piracy Helps Fuel a Booming Multi-Billion Dollar Illegal Market commissioned by the DCA and White Bullet, which estimates the combined advertising and subscription revenue generated by piracy is at least $US2.34 billion annually.
Listen to the podcast here.