Kaspersky Research Shows Rise in Digital Threats Against Online Gamers

Kaspersky revealed a rise in cyberattacks targeting gamers based on a comprehensive investigation. During the period from July 2022 to July 2023, Kaspersky observed an increasing security deterioration among players who comprise half of the world's population currently. 

Online criminals launch web vulnerability exploits, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, cryptocurrency mining attacks, and complex Trojan horse or phishing campaigns to target this community and obtain individuals' personal data. 

During the mentioned period, Kaspersky recorded around 4,076,530 attempted downloads of unauthorized files masquerading as famous games, game mods, cheats, and other game-related programs, affecting around 192,456 users worldwide. These files were classified as unwanted programs but often labeled as not-a-virus:Downloader by antivirus software, meaning they are downloaders for viruses but not viruses themselves in 89.7% of cases.

Additionally, advertising software posed a 5.3% threat and Trojan horse programs a 2.4% threat to desktop computer-using players. 

Minecraft was found to be the primary target of online criminals, representing 70.3% of all alerts and impacting 130,619 players globally. Roblox was the second-most targeted game, resulting in 20.4% of total alerts and affecting 30,367 users.

Other games exposed to cyber threats included Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at 4.8%, PUBG at 2.9%, Hogwarts Legacy at 0.6%, DOTA 2 at 0.5%, and League of Legends at 0.3%.