Cybercriminals are actively abusing the names of artists and songs nominated for a Grammy 2020 award, to spread malware. Kaspersky protection technologies detected a 39% rise in attacks (attempts to download or run malicious files) under the guise of nominees’ work in 2019, compared to 2018. Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift and Post Malone were attackers’ favourites, with these nominees’ names used most often in 2019 as a disguise for malware.
In light of the biggest music awards of the year, Kaspersky researchers analyzed Grammy 2020 nominated artists’ names and song titles for malware. As a result, Kaspersky found 30,982 malicious files that used the names of artists or their tracks to spread malware, with 41,096 Kaspersky product users having encountered them.
Analysis of the nominated artists showed that the names of Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift and Post Malone were used most to disguise malicious files, with over half (55%) of detected malicious files named after them.
The connection between the rise in popularity and malicious activity is very evident in the case of newer artists such as Billie Eilish. The teenage singer became hugely popular in 2019, and the number of users who downloaded malicious files with her name has risen almost tenfold compared to 2018 – from 254 to 2171, the number of unique distributed malicious files – from 221 to 1,556. For instance, while the number of users attacked by Malware disguised as Billie Eilish songs in The United Arab Emirates accounted for only 139 in 2018, 2019 saw this number increased to 31,782. Overall, United Arab Emirates saw 61 of such malicious files distributed in this region in 2019, with 100,961 attacks.
However, while nomination for a prestigious award and recognition connected to it affects users’ interest in specific artists and, as a result, a growth in malicious activity, this is not necessarily the case for more established artists such as Lady Gaga, whose name use also experienced a rise in attacks in the past year.
Kaspersky also analyzed which records and songs, nominated for a Grammy in 2019, received the most attention from cybercriminals. Post Malone’s ‘Sunflower’, Khalid’s ‘Talk’ and Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’, led the way for songs with the most malware attacks.