Over four million game-related desktop infection attempts were detected by Kaspersky between July 2022 and July 2023, displaying the severity of video game cybersecurity issues.

Gaming is increasingly popular, with two in five people across the globe participating in some form of video gaming, a year-on-year increase of 6.3%, according to Newzoo.

With gaming revenue already at $242.39 billion globally – with expectations it will double – it is no wonder threat actors are targeting the popular and lucrative online video game sphere for malware and phishing attempts.

As new games are released and old ones maintain their grip on gamers, threat actors can use popular titles as a malicious lure to their malware campaigns.

As nearly a quarter of gamers were under age in 2022, they can often be easier prey for attackers.

Kaspersky investigated the state of cybersecurity in gaming, and revealed some shocking trends in just how targeted the industry is for attacks.

To delve into this world, Kaspersky’s report researched attacks involving active malware families, and threats disguised as popular games, cheat codes, or mods. Further, the research firm investigated phishing pages using some of the most popular video game titles for both mobile and desktop usage.

Desktop Findings

From the over four million desktop infection attempts, around 192,456 gamers were affected worldwide.

Kaspersky found that downloaders (89.7%) were the most common threat, followed by Adware (5.25%), and Trojans (2.39%).

Essentially, downloaders look like harmless, normal programmes, but are designed to find and install malware onto devices, and were the most popular method by far used on gamers.

Adware involves the use of pop-up adds to either collect user date, or lead users to infected URLs or download infected malware.

Trojans, on the other hand, once installed allow threat actors to perform all administrative attacks a user would typically only have access to.

Of the 14 games chosen for the research, Minecraft was the most targeted by far, making up nearly three quarters (70.29%) of attacks.

The game has over 160 million actively monthly users in 2023, and is one of the most popular games in the world. The average user of Minecraft is a 24 year old male, but the game has players as young as three years old.

Roblox was targeted in 20.37% of alerts, followed by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (4.78%), PUBG (2.85%), Hogwarts Legacy (0.60%), GOTA (0.45%) and League of Legends (0.31%).

Mobile Findings

Minecraft remained at the top for most targeted mobile game, with 90.37% of attacks which impacted 80,128 players.

The most targeted country of mobile Minecraft gamers was Iran, with 140,482 alerts triggered.

PUBG: Battlegrounds Battle Royale was targeted in 5.06% of attacks, with mostly Russian players targeted.

In mobile gaming, Roblox had the third highest number of alerts (3.33%), but the second number of affected users. This is likely because a Trojan was deployed and distributed among players disguised as a mod.

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Phishing

The report also revealed trends in phishing, as video games tend to be a lucrative target for cyber-criminals.

As many games let users purchase and sell in-game items, gaming accounts with a good collection of these items are prime targets.

Threat actors often lure gamers in with free giveaways of these items, and require users logins to be inputted into the phishing site, which are then stolen.

Gamers are also having their social media credentials targeted as these are often used to log into gaming websites, or being tricked into paying for delivery fees for fake game-related prizes.