Operations against subscription piracy continue around the world

Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) in the last days of August, carried out a massive operation against subscription IPTV piracy in a house that had turned into a digital piracy den. Among the items that Mrseized, there were hundreds of set-top boxes, servers, hard drives, networking equipment, bank books, customer accounts and mobile phones and in fact the Police released photographic material from the investigations. In a report detailing the events that culminated last month, police say searches on online auction platforms revealed sales of an app known as QingtianTV/SunnyTV. The photographs taken inside the house during the raid are characteristic.

According to the tags displayed next to the equipment after the seizure, the relatively small units in the red cases are cable TV boxeswhile units in black cases are labeled “signal encoders”.

Structure of the Pirate Enterprise

A diagram has even been published that provides an overview of IPTV operation, from reception, processing and encoding of streams for distribution, right through to consumption by end users. Cloudflare’s prominent inclusion in the slide is no surprise and appears to be part of a growing trend.

World’s ‘biggest’ Fmovies piracy ring busted with more than 6.7 billion hits

Hanoi police in Vietnam on the same day made arrests and shut down a huge illegal cartel, with websites such as Bflixz, Flixtorz, Movies7 and Myflixer which, together with Fmovies, constituted “the world’s largest pirated streaming operation”, with more than 6 .7 billion visits between January 2023 and June 2024.

The Liability of Pirated Pay TV Users: The Hidden Danger That Lies

It is observed that the legislation in many countries of the world is becoming increasingly strict, with heavy penalties for both traffickers and end users of illegal TV content. In fact, those who prefer illegal sources and identify themselves with clientele from major police operations are under judicial investigation by the relevant authorities and risk fines and legal consequences, which could even go as far as imprisonment.

Even more worrying is the fact that the use of pirated services comes with serious risks to users’ security. Many times these platforms are full of malware, which can steal personal data and financial information. The risk of digital crime lurks in every “click”, and users have absolutely no protection against attacks.