Don’t Be a Victim of Fake Video Games!

According to research by Kaspersky, cybercriminals who exploit the growing demand for video games infect malicious software with counterfeit copies of popular games. In the 12 months between June 2018 and June 2019, more than 930,000 users were attacked in this way. More than a third of the attacks focused on only three games.

Video games have been around for a long time. Thanks to the power of the Internet, the growth and development of games has increased dramatically. Today, about one-tenth of the world’s population is playing games on the internet. Like other types of digital entertainment, video games also face problems such as copyright infringement and illegal torrent followers.

Recently, however, a new one has been added: the illegal use of the brand to spread malware. Most popular games are on digital distribution platforms. These platforms don’t always understand whether the uploaded files are real game files or examples of malware.

Kaspersky researchers who want to examine this issue closely, 2018’in the first half of 2019 and looked at the harmful files detected in the first half.

Minecraft is one of the most used cyber criminals. Malicious software that looks like this game affects more than 310,000 users, making up about 30 percent of total attacks. The second in the fake games is the GTA 5, which targets more than 112,000 users. The fake version of Sims 4, which is among the popular games, attracted about 105,000 users.

Researchers, cyber criminals have yet to reveal users with games that have revealed.

Files that appear to be games that are not on the market are actually malicious software. In the study, fake versions of at least 10 games have not been released yet. 80 percent of them are FIFA 20, Borderlands 3 and Elder Scrolls 6.

Kaspersky Security Investigator Maria Fedorova says: “Cyber ​​criminals use digital entertainment environments to capture users unprepared. These include popular TV programs, first screenings of movies or famous video games. The reason why this is preferred is very simple. People are less careful when they want to relax and have fun. They don’t expect to find malware in something fun they’ve been using for years. Therefore, this attack vector does not require an advanced method to succeed. We advise everyone to be careful, avoid untrusted digital platforms and suspicious offers, install security software, and perform regular security scans on all devices they use for gaming.”

Here’s the full report.