Online Gamers Most Vulnerable to Malware Assaults

According to a research report released by Microsoft Security, virus authors are increasingly attacking online video game players. Also, numerous malicious programs are being developed so as to procure credentials of renowned online games.

The popular targets for phishing attacks are gaming sites, websites of retailers and banks, and portals, stated the report. Moreover, hijacked gaming accounts are sold on through the Internet's underground economy or for in-game booty.

Meanwhile, the research undertaken by the Microsoft also unearthed a malicious programs' family hunting for titles such as World of Warcraft, Maple Story, Lineage and several others.

Taterf and Conficker worms are two of these malicious programs which have supposedly infiltrated millions of systems worldwide. Both these worms use a troublesome mode to accomplish their purpose. They infiltrate the increasingly popular thumb drives that are increasingly gaining popularity among people as vehicles to transfer videos, music, files, games or other information between PCs.

Moreover, according to Cliff Evans, security head at Microsoft UK, recent look on threats faced by Windows revealed a substantial growth in the Taterf group of malicious programs, as per the news published by BBC on November 2, 2009.

Microsoft, in the first half of 2009, witnessed over 4.9 Million Taterf infections, up 156% compared to the total number of infections observed in the second half of 2008. He added that Taterf used various tricks to get hold of login names and passwords for the leading online games.

Microsoft said that the criminals are becoming comparatively more open, malicious and direct in their assault approach. Thus, multi-layered protection is the need of the hour. It also said that having anti-virus software to remove threats is good, but preventing the virus from entering the machine at the first hand is a far better option.

In the meantime, according to Secure Play's, an online game security firm, crooks are increasingly stealing online game account credentials as they are a lucrative target for these culprits to steal game currency or rob the account. Online games are being increasingly attacked as doing so is relatively easy and not much interest is being displayed by the law enforcement authorities.

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

» SPAMfighter News - 11/16/2009