3 most common hacker attacks in games 1g6t12

The gaming industry has always attracted the attention of cybercriminals. However, it was in 2021 that the scenario became drastic for players. According to new report da Akamai, a global cybersecurity and cloud company, in the last year alone, attacks on the gaming industry have increased almost three times compared to 2020. Stay with us to better understand how this happens and what are the most common hacker attacks in games! 1y316c

Import and of games grew in Brazil 5x18z

Before talking about the most frequent hacker attacks in the gaming world, it is worth making a brief analysis of the current scenario to understand how this niche has become one of the main targets of criminals.

According to the most recent survey carried out by the PGB (Research Games Brazil), 74,5% of Brazilians play video games, whether on consoles or mobile devices. It's the same as saying that 3 out of 4 Brazilians are players, regardless of how often they play. With the pandemic, 46% of Gamers Brazilians played more, according to the same survey cited above. In other words, in Brazil alone, the number of possible victims is stratospheric!

With the increase in demand driven by more people playing for longer, there was also a big shift in national production. Data from ABRAGAMES show that the number of companies producing games in Brazil it grew by almost 200% (from 375 to 1009) in the last four years.

In addition to all this, the importation of games enters this equation of positioning of the game industry in Brazil, reaching 600% of growth. There was also a significant increase in traffic and activity. Last year, the Akamai observed 250 Tbps spikes in s related to game companies. 

Why do criminals hack video game players? 15616a

The cost of the games themselves is often almost nil compared to the gigantic world of microtransactions. Between season upgrades, purchase of es and desire for new items, are the biggest investments of players, even if in the short term, it seems a negligible amount.

To get a sense of how much players are spending, let's use one of the flagships of Activision Blizzard for example: Call of Duty. In late February, costumes and equipment based on Attack on Titan. The pack contained 10 items, including the Ultra rarity weapon blueprint, along with the skin of operator “Armored Titan" for Roland Zeiment.

All this for the trifle of 2400 game points, which is equivalent to BRL 78,00, since this amount of points is sold for this amount in the Playstation Store. Such special packages tend to appear every season/season in games Battle Royale, a period that usually lasts three months. Between July and September 2020, for example, the Activision Blizzard raised $1,5 billion from microtransactions alone. Following this premise, this market is expected to reach $106,02 billion by 2026, creating an immense and highly profitable target for criminals. 

This is how gamers represent value to cybercriminals. If they manage to break into s, everything from in-game currency and items to information can be collected to be sold on the Dark web. Surely you've had a colleague who lost the full of the experience of Tibia (this one is for the old men of war) or the LoL because of an invasion hacker. Well, we know that these s ended up in the hands of other players who, of two, one: bought the s sold by hacker Or did they do the attack themselves? hackers.

We won't let go of violation that game companies have been receiving. It is in this mode that they can cause all sorts of problems — from stealing source code and developing Cheats (special codes and tricks) that make gambling unfair, even extorting companies, encrypting systems or publicly exposing sensitive data.

Now that we better understand the industry's potential for hackers, it's time to know the 3 most common attacks in games. It is worth mentioning that, although the gaming industry in Brazil is growing, we are still not among the most affected countries. According to the report of Akamai, the United States, Switzerland, India, Japan and the United Kingdom are among the most affected hackers.

3 most common hacking attacks in games 3g2567

web application attacks 35r2b

The top three application attacks website include: LFI (38%), SQLi (34%) and XSS (24%). When it comes to attacks LFI and SQLi, criminals are looking for some specific things. games for mobile devices and games based on website represent major targets of these attacks because criminals who manage to carry out attacks against these platforms will have access to names and s, information and any game-related information that is on the server.

Os LFI attacks (Local File Inclusion, local file inclusion in Portuguese) try to explore scripts running on servers to attack stored data. Ie, they insert files that are already present locally on the server in question, by exploring vulnerable inclusion processes. This can include player and game details, which criminals can use to take advantage or cheat. Given the right access, they might also be able to use this type of attack to gain more access to the gaming companies' network.

As for the attacks SQLi (Structured Query Language Injection, or Injection in Structured Query Language, in Portuguese, which is a programming language), criminals insert error code into a website to breach security measures and access protected data. Thus, they can obtain credentials from , personal information, or anything else stored in the server's database that is targeted for an attack. This makes it possible to penetrate the databases Back-end and control player s. Once inside, they can, for example, steal the source code and use it to develop Cheats.

Already XSS (Cross Site Scripting) is a class of application attacks website that allows an attacker to inject scripts on websites through other s' browsers. In this way, the injected code is ed as trusted, making it possible to send the cookie authorization of the 's site to the attacker. As cookie, hacker can do on the site as the and obtain credit card information, for example.

DDoS 4r2s4n

Most game security professionals are well acquainted with the DDoS attacks (acronym for Distributed Denial of ServiceO). criminals use bot armies or other automated techniques to overload servers. They can leave the infrastructure completely offline or slow it down, impacting business operations and game performance. Volumetric attacks, for example, can take games down and affect thousands of players in a matter of seconds. Or they can be more targeted, increasing latency just enough to give one player an edge over others.

By making game features unavailable or by decreasing performance, the DDoS can bring a game company's business to a halt in order to create player dissatisfaction with that vendor, incentivize them to seek out new games/vendors, or at the very least increase costs.

In addition, the Gaming remains the most attacked vertical of DDoS, receiving 37% of all global DDoS attacks, with nearly double the amount compared to the second largest vertical attacked — financial services.

Ransomware 5m21y

O ransomware it's another kind of attack hacker popular game that has been widely affecting the gaming industry. Occurs when a performs a specific type of with , created with the aim of hijacking your data. Criminals encrypt files to make them inaccessible so that it is almost impossible reverse them without paying the ransom. Experts recommend that gaming companies implement mitigation strategies to prevent ransomware and that educate their s about the Phishing (a common form of attacks ransomware).

With more companies choosing to rebuild systems from a backup, as an alternative to paying a ransom, criminals have developed new attack techniques. New and sophisticated types of ransomware can stealing or compromising backups before encrypting production files. Another attack technique is known as double extortion. Basically, malware exfiltrates the data before encrypting it so that the hackers may demand ransom for not publishing the stolen data.

“The growth in the supply of new games, players and other lucrative aspects of the gaming industry will continue to attract cybercriminals. This is because they know there is value within games and will continue to develop ways to obtain or exploit this flow of virtual funds. This reinforces the importance for companies to mitigate risks, following good cybersecurity practices to prevent attacks, protect players' personal data and also educate s.”

Helder Ferrão, Akamai's industrial marketing manager in Latin America. 

So, you'll think twice before buying your new one. skin? tell us Comment!

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Source: Akamai.