The "Boot Out Piracy" campaign, a joint initiative by local broadcaster Astro and the English Premier League, has returned to Malaysia. It aims to raise awareness among football fans about the serious cybersecurity risks involved in using illegal streaming services to watch live football matches.
This iteration of the campaign features prominent English Premier League players—including Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk, Manchester United forward Bryan Mbeumo, and Arsenal’s Eberechi Eze—to highlight the grave cybersecurity threats associated with illegal streaming services.
The campaign’s video series will shed light on the real dangers that illegal streaming poses to users, such as phishing scams, malware, identity theft, and financial fraud. It encourages Premier League fans to remain vigilant against issues they might encounter on illegal streaming platforms, including the downloading of unverified files, suspicious financial or reward offers, requests for sensitive personal information, and random pop-up windows.
While illegal streaming is frequently associated with copyright infringement, the use of such platforms also presents a range of other serious concerns—most notably, significant cybersecurity risks for the user.
Independent research conducted by cybersecurity expert Professor Paul Watters reveals that:
On average, illegal streaming websites are 17.3 times riskier than mainstream websites. 66 percent of the websites evaluated were classified as posing a high or critical cybersecurity risk.
More than half (54 percent) of the websites assessed exhibited suspicious activity linked to fraud, phishing, or malicious intent.
Nearly half of the piracy websites (44%) expose users to harmful advertisements and channels that lead to scams, thereby increasing the risk of becoming a target for cybercriminals.
Stefan Sergot, Legal Director – Enforcement for the Premier League, stated: “Illegal streaming might appear to be a free and convenient way to watch football, but this study shows that such services can expose users to a range of risks, including fraud, identity theft, malware, and other online threats.
“Through the ‘Boot Out Piracy’ campaign, we aim to raise awareness among fans about the risks of illegal streaming and encourage them to enjoy Premier League action safely and in the best quality through legitimate services.
“We will continue to work with our broadcast partners, social media platforms, and authorities to combat illegal streaming, while ensuring that fans better understand the risks and threats associated with these services.”
The ‘Boot Out Piracy’ campaign will be featured across broadcast channels and social media platforms in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam over the coming months, with the support of the Premier League’s broadcast partners, authorities, and other stakeholders.
