Major warning issued to people using kit like Amazon Fire Sticks for illegal streaming

Illegal streams of live sport via kit like Amazon’s £25 Fire Stick are used by criminals to steal credit card details and infect users’ devices with malware.

A new report by Enders Analysis says pirated video was an “enticing store front” used by crooks and accused big tech of not doing enough to tackle “industrial scale theft”. It found that illegal streams are now used by one in eight people aged 16 to 24 and called combating it a “formidable challenge”.

It accused big tech firms of “a combination of ambivalence and inertia” by failing to shore up security while “simultaneously steering consumers to illegal services”. The report described three things that allow piracy to flourish. The first is “opportunistic” restreaming of live events via social media, while the second uses streaming services to implant malware to the viewer’s device.

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The report said: “Pirated services are part of sustained efforts, mostly by organised crime, to gain access to consumer data and online identity, infect devices with malware and enrich their criminal enterprises.” The third is paid-for pirate TV via devices like the Fire Stick, which “masquerade as legitimate operators”

There are an estimated 17 million people in Europe using pirated TV services. Estimates of the cost vary between £900million and £21billion a year. A single pirate stream of a high-profile football match could have tens of thousands of viewers. Amazon’s Fire TV Stick is branded a “piracy enabler” in the report.

The device, which plugs into a TV and allows access to thousands of legitimate services, is also being used to illegally stream big events. Enders found that viewers do not need to “search the darkest corners of the web” as services are “openly marketed and promoted”.

Amazon said it had made changes to Fire TV to make it harder to stream pirated content and warns customers against “sideloaded ”.

A spokesman said: “We remain vigilant in our efforts to combat piracy and protect customers from the risks associated with pirated content, which includes prohibiting apps that infringe upon the rights of third parties in our Appstore, and warning customers of the risks associated with installing or using apps from unknown sources.”

Nick Herm, Sky Group COO, said: “It’s a serious issue for anyone who invests in creating and delivering world-class content. We’d like to see faster, more joined-up action from major tech platforms and government.”