Game of Thrones Season 7 torrent warning as arrests made over illegal streams

GAME of Thrones Season 7 continues to be one of the most downloaded shows on the web but a latest crackdown has seen four people arrested over illegal streams.

Game of Thrones Season 7 has already made history, becoming one of the most illegally downloaded shows ever.

Leaks and illegal streams have flooded the web forcing its makers HBO to warn torrent users about the dangers of watching the show on unofficial channels.

Now it seems the crackdown on streams is escalating with a number of people being arrested for leaking an episode of the show before it was aired.

The four people from India were taken into custody earlier this week with police saying they are accused of criminal breach of trust and computer-related offences.

Speaking to the AFP news agency Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan said: "We investigated the case and have arrested four individuals for unauthorised publication of the fourth episode from season seven,"

The case was filed by a Mumbai-based company who are responsible for processing and storing the TV episodes for an app, local media said.

The arrest made were all company employees who possessed official credentials giving them access to the episodes.

Game Of Thrones is certainly no stranger when it comes to online piracy.

The hugely-popular US show has consistently topped the annual list of most illegally downloaded shows since 2012.

According to research data published ahead of the season 7 premiere, 61 per cent of millennials planned to watch Game Of Thrones this year, but one in three will not pay for the show.

In total, more than 3.7 million Britons admitted that they planned to illegally watch the hit HBO show online, the study by website finder.com revealed.

But there are a number of consequences to watching Game Of Thrones for free online.

Cybersecurity firm Siege says there are “very real technical concerns” about downloading content – like Game Of Thrones – via torrents.

Siege CEO Jason Syversen told Consumer Reports, “There are some very real technical concerns.

“You’re dealing with these shady third-party sites, so it’s a great opportunity for people to insert malware into the BitTorrent client as well as transferring files with malicious content.”