However, they will lose much more than if they had bought a legitimate version.

This is especially true if a new game is quite expensive and the player wants to save money by finding a copy for free on untrustworthy sites.

Most often, users receive malicious files when they try to download games not from official sites, but from third-party webpages. The number of such unique files used to infect users also increased in the first half of 2022 by nearly a quarter, compared to the same period in 2021: 1,868 and 1,530 files, respectively. In the first half of 2022, Kaspersky researchers observed a 13 percent increase in the number of users attacked with it in comparison to the first half of 2021. It included Trojan-PSW, which gathers victims’ credentials, Trojan-Banker, that steals payment data, and Trojan-GameThief, which collects login information for gaming accounts.įrom July 1 st, 2021 to June 30 th, 2022 Kaspersky security solutions detected a total of 3,705 unique files distributing this malicious software under the guise of popular games or series of games. The research also revealed a growth in attacks made with malicious software that steals sensitive data from infected devices. In addition to the large number of downloaders that are able to install other unwanted programs, and adware, Kaspersky researchers even detected Trojan-Spies – a category of spyware capable of tracking any data entered on the keyboard and taking screenshots. Overall, between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022, Kaspersky security solutions detected more than 384,000 users affected by almost 92,000 malicious or unwanted unique files that mimicked 28 games or series of games. To assess the current landscape in gaming risks, Kaspersky experts observed the most popular PC and mobile games-related threats. These and other findings are part of the gaming-related threats report issued by Kaspersky.

In attempts to download new games from untrustworthy resources for free, players actually received malicious software, losing their gaming accounts and even money. The number of users attacked by malicious software, which gathers sensitive data and spreads under the guise of some of the most popular gaming titles, has increased by 13% compared to the first half of 2021. In the first half of 2022, Kaspersky researchers detected increased activity of cybercriminals abusing gamers.

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