Online gaming flourished especially during the global COVID lockdowns, as online gaming provided a much- needed outlet for entertainment and social interaction, with hundreds of thousands new accounts created and new communities born.
This was obviously a boon to would-be hackers, with an estimated 1 billion online gamers worldwide in 2020, with China, South Korea, and Japan having the biggest online gaming reach amongst the population according to Statistic.
They estimate that by 2025, online gaming audiences are projected to surpass 1.3 billion.
Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd., a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions globally, warns that now that gaming is one of the world’s largest entertainment industries, it is also one of the major targets of cybercriminals.
Companies in the gaming industry that have fallen victim to cyberattack include CD Projekt Red, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft.
This is because gamers often hand over as much personal information to companies in this industry as they would to their employer, bank or when online shopping.
There are a few different reasons why a cybercriminal targets online gamers:
1. To sell your virtual assets for real-world money –
Cybercriminals will often breach online gamers ‘ account(s) and steal their virtual goods in order to then sell them to other users for real-world money.
In many ways, video game economies have essentially been the forerunners of cryptocurrencies.
It should always be kept in mind that the virtual money earned in a game cannot be used in the real world, but it has a value to gamers and be traded.
2. To steal games from your inventory –
Many games are published, sold and authenticated online via platforms such as Steam, Origin and GOG Galaxy.
CPR reported on a major vulnerabilities in popular Valve games networking library, which if exploited could take over hundreds of thousands of computers without needing users to click on phishing emails, as victims will be affected by simply logging onto the game.
People will typically manage all of their purchases from a single account, and long-term users are known to have libraries with hundreds of games.
Cybercriminals will sometimes hack into accounts to steal some of these games for their own use.
3. To gain as much information about you as possible for identify theft and bank fraud
With online transactions and monthly subscriptions, there is a lot of financial information at play, which is attractive to cybercriminals.
Sometimes they can even track information as sensitive as your location or listen into phone calls in the case of a mobile game.
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