Gaming-related web attacks went up by more than 50% in April: Report

Cybercriminals have been using the popularity of video games to launch these attacks over the lockdown. The game that was most used by criminals to target users was Minecraft.

According to a Kaspersky report, the daily number of blocked attempts to direct their users to malicious sites using a game theme went up by 54% in April as compared to January 2020. (Pixabay)

Thanks to the lockdown, video games rose in popularity exponentially and cybercriminals started using this to launch attacks. According to a Kaspersky report, the daily number of blocked attempts to direct their users to malicious sites using a game theme went up by 54% in April as compared to January 2020.

Additionally, the number of attempts blocked to direct users to a phishing page from one of the most popular gaming platforms also went up by 40% in April 2020 as compared to February 2020.

Beginning March, the overall number of Steam users increased significantly, with the platform reaching an all-time high for both active users and concurrent users actively playing games by March 30.

According to data from Kaspersky Security Network, users are lured by promises such as free versions of popular games, updates and extensions or cheat codes. However, once these users click on these links, a variety of malicious programs can be downloaded. These malwares include password stealing malware to ransomware and miners. Miners are software that mines cryptocurrency from the computer.

The game that was most used by criminals to target users was Minecraft. The name ‘Minecraft' was used in more than 130,000 web attacks. The other most popular games used in attacks were Counter Strike: Global Offensive and The Witcher 3.

How to safe from attacks while playing games online:

- Use strong passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA) where possible to protect your video-gaming accounts

- Be wary of any cheats and pirated copies of video-games, since it's one of the favorite lures used by cybercriminals

- Use a reliable security solution that identifies malicious downloads, blocks phishing sites, and prevents redirects to malicious pages

- During the game, don't switch off your security solution, but turn on gaming mode, which consumes less resources.