A new study reveals that iconic series like Dragon Ball Z Kai and Black Lagoon are some of the most dangerous anime to search for online.
Surfshark VPN conducted the research by creating seed lists of the most popular anime search terms and inputting the terms into Google with additional qualifiers like "download," "stream" and "torrent." It then ran the URLs from the first five pages of results through Sucuri SiteCheck, which is a malware detection service. Surfshark VPN found that the most dangerous anime to search for is TMS Entertainment's Yowamushi Pedal, which is a show about bike racing that ran for 38 episodes between October 2013 and July 2014; 49.7% of the URLs contained potential malware. Toei Animation's Dragon Ball Z Kai ranked as the second most dangerous at 46.6%.
The other anime that made Surfshark VPN's top ten "Most Dangerous Anime to Search For Online" are Aldnoah.Zero (43.4%), Rurouni Kenshin (43.3%), Blast Tempest (42.3%), Future Diary (42.3%), Black Lagoon (41.7%), Ace of Diamond (41.6%), Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic (40.7%) and Akame ga Kill! (40.4%). According to the company, "anime websites are a major target for cybercriminals looking to lure victims to malware links" because many viewers are looking to download or stream these series through unofficial sources.
While it didn't make it on Surfshark's list of the most dangerous anime to search for, Attack on Titan appeared on the company's list of the TV show searches that are most likely to take users to a site loaded with malware. The anime ranked behind shows such as Breaking Bad and Sex Education.
Anime fans aren't the only ones who have to worry about their cybersecurity these days, as animation studios have also become the targets of ransomware and malware. Toei Animation was hacked earlier this year on March 6, which resulted in the deletion and/or corruption of important files related to the production of many shows. Some anime like Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai and Delicious Party Precure experienced minor delays in their release schedule, but other series like One Piece and Digimon Ghost Game were on hiatus for over a month. Both shows have since resumed airing new episodes.
Several of the series featured on Surfshark VPN's list like Rurouni Kenshin and Aldnoah.Zero are available to stream on Crunchyroll.
SOURCE: Surfshark VPN