Criminals can also resort to old-fashioned ransomware to encrypt files and publicly expose exfiltrated data. Additionally, if hackers breach a gaming company, actors can steal source code and unlock game cheats. Then criminals can put it all up for sale on the dark web. By hacking into user accounts, intruders can steal in-game currencies and assets as well as account information or entire gaming accounts. As reported by Direct Relief, on Twitch, gamers donated $145 million to charity between 2011-2019, including $42 million in 2019 alone.įor threat actors, the gamer-verse is full of lucrative targets. There’s also a lot of philanthropy that comes from gaming communities. According to a report from The Business Research Company, the online microtransaction market is expected to reach $106.02 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 11.9%. And these microtransactions generate billions in revenue. Meanwhile, gamers frequently purchase character upgrades, tools and skins. Bad actors continue to rely on tried-and-true exploits, such as phishing and ransomware, and gaming is no exception. The Akamai report cited the worldwide rise in phishing-as-a-service kits, which also often target gamers. Preferred Methods of Attack Against Gamers In 2021, attacks on the gaming industry more than doubled compared to the prior year, as per Akamai. The sudden surge in gaming has attracted threat actors as well.
By leveraging cross-platform progression, people are playing more games on more devices than ever. Now players can stream games on nearly any device. As per one study, Twitch, the leading live-streaming platform for gamers, saw an 83% YOY increase in viewership in Q2 2020.Īt the time, many gaming companies scrambled to meet the increased demand, as did cloud developers. When the pandemic hit, everybody began to live online - or at least many spent a lot more time in the digital space. Meanwhile, Kaspersky Lab found a 13% increase in malicious software attacks on games in the first half of 2022 compared with the first half of 2021. According to newly released data, the cyber assault on the gamer-verse has been relentless.Ī recent Akamai report revealed that web application attacks, which exploit vulnerabilities in online programs like mobile games, were up 167% year-on-year (YOY) from May 2021 to April 2022. Unsurprisingly, cyber criminals have identified the gaming industry as a juicy opportunity. At the current rate of growth, the world will quickly reach 3 billion active gamers worldwide within a year.
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