Cyber Crime is no game despite the recent announcement of a new Watchdogs but cloud tech firm Akamai’s State of the Internet report has a few nasty surprises for gamers. Criminals are after your in-game items and it’s our own fault.
If you’ve ever ventured down a dark alley in Exodar or skulked around the more nefarious taverns of Divinity’s Reach you probably would assume that this is as bad as it can get. Turns out we were very wrong. Akami are a cloud-based technology company that specializes in that bit of the internet that gets videos, games, and services in front of your computer with minimal fuss. This integral type of service requires a good understanding of how people use the internet and their latest State of The Internet title says it all really.
Incredible Numbers
“Security Web Attacks and Gaming Abuse” report that the instance of attacks on the gaming industry is staggeringly high. Of the 55Billion credential stuffing attacks made against all online industries, Akamai monitored 12Billion of these directed at gaming websites. That’s doesn’t even include other services that many of us use day to day. A whole other plethora of attacks are identified in the report and Akami suggests there’s a reason for this.
“One reason that we believe the gaming industry is an attractive target for hackers is because criminals can easily exchange in-game items for profit,” said Martin McKeay, Security Researcher at Akamai and Editorial Director of the State of the Internet / Security Report. “Furthermore, gamers are a niche demographic known for spending money, so their financial status is also a tempting target.”
We all know somebody who has been hacked, their account stripped and the virtual items sold off in game or online through grey websites. This appears to be exactly what the Akamai team found happening over the 17 months of their State of The Internet report. Cyber Crime can look at your account as a low-risk high reward target with virtually no retribution for these acts in the real world and a web of international borders between source and targets.
You can check out some of the startling numbers from the report above and check out some of the MMORPG.com security service picks here. The full report is available here. Take note they’re after your gold, your mantle, and your legendary swords.
