📩 08/11/2023 12:34
Kaspersky discovered increased vulnerabilities of the gamer community in the period from July 2022 to July 2023. Cybercriminals have exploited the vulnerabilities of this large community to access personal data, launching a range of attacks including web vulnerabilities, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, cryptocurrency mining, sophisticated Trojan horse and phishing campaigns.
Kaspersky solutions detected 1 million 2022 thousand 1 attempts to download 2023 thousand 30 unique files disguised as popular games, mods, cheats and other game-related software in the one-year period from July 684, 4 to July 76, 530. These events affected 192 thousand 456 users worldwide. These files, classified primarily as unwanted software and often marked as viruses, include: Downloader (89,7 percent – not inherently dangerous, but can download a variety of other programs, including malicious ones, to the user's device), adware ( 5,3 percent) and Trojans (2,4 percent).
Minecraft emerged as the top target of choice among cybercriminals, being responsible for triggering 70,3 percent of all security alerts. Threats using Minecraft as bait affected 130 players worldwide during the reporting period. Roblox was the second most targeted game, contributing 619 percent of all alerts and affecting 20,4 users. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (30 percent), PUBG (367 percent), Hogwarts Legacy (4,8 percent), DOTA 2,9 (0,6 percent) and League of Legends (2 percent) are also cyber It was among the prominent games exposed to threats.
The mobile gaming community, which consists of more than three billion players, or approximately 2023 percent of the world's population, according to the Newzoo 40 report, has become an attractive target for cybercriminals due to its significant growth and accessibility. Kaspersky recorded 1 thousand 2022 mobile device infection attempts affecting 1 thousand 2023 users between July 84, 539 and July 436, 786.
Various game names were also used as bait to target mobile players. Minecraft was once again the primary target, focusing on 90,4 players who were victims of 80 percent of the attacks. Indonesian users in particular faced exploitation via Minecraft, resulting in the Trojan.AndroidOS.Pootel.a attack that secretly logs mobile subscriptions. Iran witnessed the highest prevalence of these attacks, with 128 alerts affecting 54 Minecraft players.
PUBG: Battlegrounds Battle Royale was the second most exploited mobile game among cybercriminals, accounting for 5,09 percent of all alerts. Most of the incidents were caused by users from the Russian Federation. Although Roblox (3,33 percent) ranked third in the threat rankings, it ranked second in terms of the number of users affected.
Another notable discovery involved the emergence of SpyNote, a spy Trojan distributed among Roblox users on the Android mobile platform under the guise of a mod. This Trojan exhibits different spying capabilities, including keylogging, screen recording, streaming video from phone cameras, and the ability to impersonate Google and Facebook apps to trick users into revealing their passwords.