As the gaming industry grows in income and player base, cybercriminals find it an attractive target. Anticipated and already well-known games are frequently utilized as a lure in malicious campaigns.
As of 2022, around 25% of the players were underage, making them potential targets for attackers. Over the previous year, Kaspersky discovered 4,076,530 game-related desktop infection attempts, affecting 192,456 players globally.
Mostly, these are being distributed as mods, cheats, and other game-related software or as well-known games. The majority of these files (86.70%) were “Downloaders,” which are unwanted software. While not harmful in and of itself, this kind of software infects the device with malware and other programs.
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Trojans (2.39%) and adware (5.25%) were the other two most common risks associated with desktop gaming.
The experts looked into risk factors connected to the top 14 games that are either ready for release or can be downloaded from streaming platforms like Origin and Steam, in addition to platform-agnostic titles.
Minecraft was the most commonly utilized lure, accounting for 70.29% of all detections, followed by Roblox (20.37%), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (4.78%), and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (2.85%).
The most popular targets for mobile malware were users of Minecraft (90.37%), followed by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (5.09%), Roblox (3.33%), and Baldur’s Gate (0.68%).
Additionally, since most games let players buy and sell expensive in-game items, gaming accounts make a lot of money for cybercriminals. This is especially the case for accounts that have an extensive collection of well-known games and a credit card linked to them.
Giving out free in-game items or skins is one of the most well-liked enticements in the gaming industry.
Final Thoughts
Worldwide game usage is rising, with the US and Asia-Pacific regions seeing the greatest increases. Statista anticipates that by 2027, there will be 2.3 billion mobile gamers worldwide.
An estimated US$242.39 billion is made from gaming worldwide, with the Asia Pacific region producing about half of that total. It is anticipated that this global total will more than double to US$583.69 billion by 2030.
Parents of young gamers must educate themselves to protect their children better. Even if you are not naturally tech-savvy, there are plenty of great materials available online that outline the main risks so that new players can enjoy themselves while staying safe.
It is crucial to keep watchful and avoid downloading anything from unsafe third-party websites or revealing any sensitive details with those.
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