Italian police seize a piracy app that streamed Sky, DAZN, and Netflix through hijacked real accounts

Operazione Tutto Chiaro dismantled an audiovisual piracy operation that rebroadcast paid content from Sky, DAZN, Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify to thousands of subscribers. More than 100 searches and seizures were carried out across Italy, with coordinated actions in France and Germany through Eurojust. The CINEMAGOAL app was installed on users’ devices, connected to a foreign server, and decrypted live audiovisual content using credentials from legitimate subscriptions held by fictitious account holders. Virtual machines in Italy captured active subscription codes every three minutes and relayed them almost in real time to paying users. The system was designed to evade detection by preventing traceable IP links to viewing sessions. Distribution involved over seventy people who sold annual subscriptions for €40 to €130 using cryptocurrency or foreign, fictitiously held accounts.

"Operazione Tutto Chiaro hit more than 100 sites across Italy, France, and Germany, targeting a system that rebroadcast legitimate subscription codes every three minutes. Italy's Guardia di Finanza said on Friday it had dismantled an audiovisual piracy operation that streamed paid content from Sky, DAZN, Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify to thousands of subscribers using an app called CINEMAGOAL."

"Installed on a customer's device, the app reached out to a foreign server and decrypted live audiovisual content using the credentials of legitimate subscriptions held by fictitious account holders. Virtual machines positioned on Italian territory captured the active subscription codes every three minutes and relayed them, almost in real time, to paying users. The end product, in effect, was a clean signal pulled from a legal account whose registered name nobody had ever met."

"The Guardia di Finanza says the architecture was specifically designed to evade detection. Because each end-user was decrypting content through the foreign server rather than connecting directly to a streaming platform, no traceable IP address was tied to the viewing session. That feature was, by police account, the main thing the resellers advertised to prospective customers."

"Distribution was handled by more than seventy people across Italy, who sold annual subscriptions priced between €40 and €130 depending on the package, taking payment in cryptocurrency or through foreign and fictitiously held accounts. They retained a cut and passed the rest up the chain to the organisers, in the fa"

Read at TNW | Eu