{"id":5270,"date":"2015-01-08T06:50:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T11:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kasperskydaily.com\/uk\/?p=5270"},"modified":"2020-02-26T15:10:48","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T15:10:48","slug":"security-tips-for-gamers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/security-tips-for-gamers\/5270\/","title":{"rendered":"Security tips for gamers: how to keep your precious elf safe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gaming is a multi-billion pound industry with millions of players across the globe. \u00a0With this volume of users and money sloshing around, it\u2019s inevitable that hackers and criminals come calling. \u00a0Kaspersky Lab currently know of more than 4.6 million pieces of gaming-focused malware and that\u2019s only set to rise.<\/p>\n

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This is only exacerbated by the fact that when we play games, we lower our (normally reasonable) defences and it\u2019s this behaviour that hackers can manipulate. \u00a0This may seem strange, but there\u2019s a scientific answer.<\/p>\n

Frank Schwab, a professor of media psychology at the University of W\u00fcrzburg explains<\/a>: \u201cOur behaviour changes when we enter \u201cgaming mode\u201d. Computer gaming speaks to both our emotional and our rational-cognitive system. While we react very differently to each game, they all influence our experience and our real-life behaviour,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGamers tend to have difficulties turning off the feelings of success \u2014 and possibly also of omnipotence \u2014 they achieve in the game world in subsequent real-life situations. This can lead to risky online behaviour, with players searching for cheats on illegal websites, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KL_KA_CP_Gaming_600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Yet another issue is that many gamers actually turn off\u00a0<\/em>their antivirus software in order to get every drop of performance out of their systems. \u00a0This leads to all sorts of problems further down the line but it\u2019s something that continues to happen to this day (even with powerful, multi-core PC systems).<\/p>\n

All it takes is for a user to be \u2018duped\u2019 into downloading and installing a piece of malicious software. \u00a0These are usually disguised as innocent tools or screen-savers<\/a> that people want to use on their computer. \u00a0Once installed, the code rummages through the games in users computer and transfers the account over to the criminals hands. \u00a0The next time the player logs in, their account will have either been closed, deleted or transferred to another player or account.<\/p>\n

But why exactly are hackers and criminals after gamers? \u00a0Well, one of the main reasons is that players will often pour hundreds of hours building their characters, and these sorts of accounts become a valuable asset for criminals to sell to other gamers, desperate to advance. \u00a0These are stolen using malicious malware and social engineering and then sold to the highest bidder on underground internet forums<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another issue is that it\u2019s becoming increasingly common for player accounts to have credit card details stored on their profile (to purchase in game items.) \u00a0This is another item that cyber-criminals desire, and will usually check for after an account has been hijacked.<\/p>\n

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@steam_games<\/a> i contacted support about my account being hacked\/ stolen and its taking forever for them to get back to me! help!<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jonathan Ledbetter (@jldarkspider) December 16, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n