Security News > 2022 > September > Cybercriminals target games popular with kids to distribute malware

With 3 billion players globally, the $200 billion gaming market is an increasingly ripe target for cybercriminals - with the perennially popular Minecraft one of the most targeted lures.

Using statistics gathered by the Kaspersky Security Network, which processes anonymized threat data shared voluntarily by customers, the security vendor examined the most widespread malware strains that were found to have an association with the biggest games on PC and mobile.

"We used the titles of the games as keywords and ran these against our KSN telemetry to determine the prevalence of malicious files and unwanted software related to these games, as well as the number of users attacked by these files," Kaspersky said.

Here, the name Minecraft - a sandbox building game that is especially popular with children - was the most popular bait used in 23,239 malicious files affecting 131,005 players.

The next most popular games used as lures for distributing malware should come as no surprise - Roblox, Need for Speed, Grand Theft Auto, and Call of Duty.

Another easy in for cybercrooks targeting the gaming industry was, of course, cheaters.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/09/07/gaming_threats_kaspersky/