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Watch Out for Malware-Infected Games

Ruby Singh

There are billions of gamers out there, while gaming has now turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. Across PCs and consoles, gaming is larger than ever before and affects a much wider spectrum outside of just gaming. For instance, gaming has inspired popular culture, music, and as far as TV shows, and films. It simply no longer fits the old stereotype of ‘gaming is just for kids.’ Games have advanced so much in many ways, such as graphics and the sheer level of multiplayer involvement. Today’s games can offer graphics that are almost indistinguishable from reality, while players can join teams of hundreds of people and enjoy their favorite game with their online friends. Not only that, but games can sometimes be so large and comprehensive (and complex) that finishing them takes months.

For how popular and much-loved it is all over the world, the gaming industry is also fraught with security risks and problems. This is such as hackers and scammers who target gamers to make illicit monetary gains. When it comes to cybercriminals, they are most fond of spaces where millions of online users congregate to better hide and try to target the naive ones among them. As a result, unprotected gaming (in the cybersecurity sense) can mean that you accidentally grab one of the many malware-infected games this year. This is certainly not something that you want, however, most people are unaware that there are malware infections out there where gaming is concerned, or worse yet, do not even know what malware is.

Unfortunately, malware affects some of the most popular cross-platform games out there, which is why we need to cover what malware is, first of all, followed by which games malware affects. Finally, we will look at what you can do to beef up your security as an avid gamer and avoid serious risks that you may face if you are unaware and unprotected.

What Is Malware and How Does It Affect Games?

Malware is short for malicious software. Malicious software is an umbrella term for computer system infections. This spans things like viruses, worms, trojans, RATs, spyware, and any sort of computer infection you can think of. Also, malware can affect all software, no matter what it is, even the operating system itself. Also, no computer system is impervious to malware, other than a system that was never connected to the internet. However, protected computer systems fare better, naturally.

Malware is custom-built by internet criminals and fraudsters who hope that you will download their malicious programs via, let’s say, a scam email or a fraudulent direct message on social media, and get infected. In this instance, malware can invite itself through games. Once you are infected, malware can do one of several things; scrape your device for information, or damage it.

Other times, it is not just hackers at fault for malware, but game developers who have not secured their products thoroughly enough. Good security should come by default, especially when we are talking about games where many, many people congregate (i.e multiplayer games).

Which Games Does Malware Affect?

Well, any game that connects to the internet may be vulnerable to cyberattacks that utilize malware. Secondly, games that are downloaded from pirated sources (torrent sites) always carry that risk, as well, because you are getting a cracked game, not a game from the game developer. Third, apart from pirated games and hacked games, even downloading a game from the Google Play Store can lead to an infection.

Although most iOS devices are kept secure by Apple’s rigorous development process and App Store regulations, iOS users are not entirely safe from mobile viruses either, contrary to popular belief. A significant contributor to Apple’s services once expressed his worries about several applications available on the App Store earlier in 2021, so there we are.

However, given that no system is 100% secure, you must be aware of the warning signs to avoid being a victim of malicious software. Certain games have become a favorite among bad actors due to their popularity. Here are those games;

Of all these, Minecraft is by far the most abused. Compared to The Sims 4 which had just about 1.2 million malware detections and 43 thousand users affected by malware, Minecraft eclipsed these figures with just over three million and 184 thousand, respectively. As we said earlier, cybercriminals will gather in places where there are a huge number of players. Minecraft is a case in point.

How to Protect Yourself

Protecting yourself is simple and requires a proactive approach. Do the following;

Well, what does this all mean? This list is your basic cyber hygiene checklist. It is what you should do while gaming, as well as integrate into your daily life on the internet. You see, the fewer entry points you have open, the less chance you have of malware getting on your system. Even if you download malware unwillingly, a premium antivirus solution should catch it before it does any harm. However, ideally, you want to stop this from happening in the first place by putting up walls with a strong password, a multifactor, a VPN, and an antivirus. These are tools and will perform their best if you do not interact with scam emails (from suspicious senders) as well as keep to trusted game suppliers and communities.

Finally, remember that large online gaming arenas can be a great place for internet crooks and scammers to prey on the naive. After all, they know that quantity increases that likelihood.

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