Online Games Become Popular Target for Hackers, Says G Data

According to G Data security solutions, computer games have become very popular and with their growing popularity, malware linked to these games is rising at a rapid pace.

The recent analyses done by the company revealed that there was a slight reduction in the number of targeted files at 63.7% in the second quarter of 2008, but still very high.

Security Analysts of the G Data said that gamers like to access online gaming Websites to search "cheat files" and other add-ons for computer games, which help in spreading of malware.

Further, due to rising activities of cyber game users, cyber crooks have started targeting gamers over the past 1 year. The number of malware which leaks the password and access data for online games has multiplied consistently and has overtaken the number of banking Trojans.

Moreover, the downloading of cheat files and add-ons from P2P files sharing service is particularly dangerous. Apart from the P2P file sharing service, online gamers are the main culprits of spreading malware on unsuspected users' computer.

Security analysts informed that several players deactivate firewall during the game session and go without any form of internet security package on their systems, just to get the new add-ons which sometimes lead to harmful code installation along with online games on their systems.

G Data also claimed that online gamers have everything that hackers look for i.e. long online hours, non upgraded security packages, frequently deactivated security packages, faster DSL connections and high end PCs. Ironically, the online games have everything around them except a sound mind that can protect them into falling in the hands of hackers.

Further, G Data has provided the names for the top 5 malware discovered in gaming files on P2P file sharing services for the leading 20 games, which were actually Trojan - Downlaoder.Win32.Bagle.qv (32.6%), P2P-Worm.Win32.P2PAdware.a (15.1%), P2PWorm.Win32.Padonak.b (9.3%), Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Peerad.a (8.3%) and P2PWorm.Win32.Kapucen.b (3.1%).

Related article: Online Card Fraud Shows Greater Tendency Than Chip and Pin

» SPAMfighter News - 18-08-2008

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