Your Streaming Service Passwords (Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Others) Could Be on the Black Market

Many cybersecurity articles nowadays discuss how easy it is for someone to steal an account's login information if the user is not too careful, but do you know what cybercriminals do with such data? No doubt, a lot of stolen passcodes are being used to commit identity theft. However, a content-security organization, Irdeto found out it might be a bit different with Hulu, HBO, and Netflix passwords as they discovered some of these passwords sold on black market. Naturally, if you have an account on any of the mentioned or other streaming services and worry about its security, we would recommend reading the rest of our blog post to learn more about the incident.

A couple of months ago, Irdeto presented their Piracy Trends Report in which they claim hundreds of stolen passwords along with other login details for popular streaming services like HBO, Hulu, Netflix, and others are being sold on the dark web marketplaces each month. For example, in April 2018 the organization discovered around 854 listings on the dark web that offered login information from 69 unique sellers. It would seem the passwords were for 42 different streaming services.

Apparently, the average price of login information for a particular account is around 8.81 US dollars. Unfortunately, it is cheaper than buying the services yourself because this way you make a payment only once instead of becoming a subscriber and paying each month. Plus, some of the sellers were listing credential bundles that cost more but were cheaper than buying several passwords separately. Nonetheless, the company did not purchase any of the offered login credentials and so cannot confirm whether they were legit or not, although the comments from those who did buy such data claimed it worked perfectly.

What could happen if someone purchases your Hulu, HBO, or Netflix password?

The person doing this could login to your account and watch TV content he likes until you find out about it and change your password to prevent the hacker from misusing it again. Clearly, while some users may not notice what is going on for months, there are those who could figure it out immediately. Thus, to ensure the invested sum, however small it was, would not go to waste, the buyer could try to change your account's password. Needless to say, if he succeeds you could lose access to it and may have to buy another subscription.

How to find out if your Hulu, HBO, or Netflix password was sold on the black market

It is not a difficult thing to do as most streaming services provide viewing history of already watched shows, films, or other TV content. Therefore, if you suspect someone else besides you or the people you are allowing to use the account could be able to access it, you should take a look at the account's history. In case someone actually obtained and sold passwords on the black market you might notice movies or TV series you or the people you share the account with never watched. Probably, the wisest thing to do in such a situation would be to assume your password might have been compromised. Without a doubt, we recommend changing it as soon as possible to stop your account's misuse. If you use Netflix, we can suggest reading this blog post too. It provides tips on how to recognize suspicious activity on the account as well as instructions showing how to change or reset Netflix password.

How to increase your password security?

Whether you do not want to see your password sold on the black market or wish to prevent identity theft, there are a couple of things you should do. Either way, the hackers would need to obtain your login credentials first, and there are a couple of ways to make this task for hackers much more difficult or ideally nearly impossible. You should start by making sure the combinations you use are not weak or in other words easy to hack. Usually, strong passwords are made from random characters and have not only letters and numbers, but also symbols. Plus, cybersecurity specialists recommend making passcodes from at least eight characters, although the truth is the more characters there are, the safer it should be.

Of course, it is vital not to use common phrases or pieces of information describing you that hackers could obtain while checking your social media profile, for example, your name, date of birth, location, favorite movie quotes, pet's name, etc. What's more, if you do not know this already, reusing passwords is a bad idea, which means all your accounts should be protected by separate unique combinations. If it all sounds too complicated or you do not think you can remember tons of random passwords you could try using a password manager. For those looking for both powerful and free to use application, we would suggest Cyclonis Password Manager.

September 19, 2018
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