MANILA, Philippines — Thousands of cybercriminals are using anime and movie titles to trick clients into downloading malware or unwanted files, a report by cybersecurity company Kaspersky found.
The yearlong report, covering April 2024 to March 2025, found more than 250,000 cyberattacks pretending to be popular anime shows, using bait terms such as "exclusive episodes," "leaked scenes," or "premium access."
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Experts at Kaspersky looked at five popular anime titles — "Naruto," "One Piece," "Demon Slayer," "Attack on Titan," and "Jujutsu Kaisen" — and cyberattacks peaked during the end of 2024.
"Naruto" was the top anime bait with 114,216 attempted attacks, three times as much as attacks disguised as "Demon Slayer" (44,200) and "Attack on Titan" (39,433) files.
Kaspersky experts also analyzed five popular franchises — "Shrek," "Stranger Things," "Twilight," "Inside Out," and "Deadpool" — which accounted for 43,302 attack attempts with a particular spike when 2025 began.
Most of the attacks were disguised as "Shrek" files at more than 36,000 with a spike last March, double the monthly average for 2024.
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The company dove deeper and looked at streaming services, such as Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, and tried to determine which of these were frequently used by cybercriminals.
At the end of the study, 96,288 attack attempts were found, with 85,679 of these pretending to be Netflix on top more than 2.8 million phishing pages copying its branding.
Scammers took advantage of the platform's constant traffic, broad global reach, and frequent subscription-based activity by mimicking log-in pages, sharing "free trial" links, and spoofing password reset emails.
“As the world of entertainment continues to evolve, so do the tactics used by cybercriminals to exploit popular content, whether through fake downloads or fraudulent merchandise offers," said Kaspersky security expert Vasily Kolesnikov.
"With the rise of these cyberthreats, it's more important than ever for young users to stay vigilant and understand how to protect themselves online."
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