There is no second opinion about the fact that the gaming industry is one of the most profitable industry so far. According to an estimate, both the music industry and the film industry combine can still not compete with the gaming industry when it comes to earning more profit. Due to this, hackers are now using the gaming industry as a kidnapped hostage where they can earn as much money as possible. According to recent findings by Akamai, the tech industry has experienced nearly 55 billion credential stuffing attacks globally and out of these, 12 billion attacks were directed towards the gaming industry. Since India is known to be one of the growing tech market, the country has suffered a lot of loss due to hacking and cybercrimes. India is known to be the 7th highest source for these cybercrimes and hackers globally.
Experts say that most of the hackers choosing gaming industry because hackers can easily gain profit as compensation for the in-game items. Hackers are mainly targeting poplar games and they are trying to reach out to the valid accounts with unique demographics and this will help them to change the appearance of the item in the game. After hacking the account, they reach to the users and offer a deal to get the account back. Moreover, in most games, users are required to pay via credit card, this means that during the sign up these players register themselves and attach their valid credit card along. Hackers usually like these account where the card is attached and the security is compromised. They use the money to buy more items like points or currency and then to trade and sell these game items to others via the hacked account.
Read next: World Health Organization Finally Recognizes Gaming Disorder as Illness
Experts say that most of the hackers choosing gaming industry because hackers can easily gain profit as compensation for the in-game items. Hackers are mainly targeting poplar games and they are trying to reach out to the valid accounts with unique demographics and this will help them to change the appearance of the item in the game. After hacking the account, they reach to the users and offer a deal to get the account back. Moreover, in most games, users are required to pay via credit card, this means that during the sign up these players register themselves and attach their valid credit card along. Hackers usually like these account where the card is attached and the security is compromised. They use the money to buy more items like points or currency and then to trade and sell these game items to others via the hacked account.
"While some organizations have taken advantage of expanded authentication options — including multifactor authentication (MFA), open authorization (OAuth), and hardware-based authenticator tokens — not everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. Moreover, unless multi-factor options are required, it is left up to the user to enable and use them, creating a classic trade-off between security and usability. Criminals are targeting these gaps and compromising dozens, if not hundreds, of accounts each day.", explained study.Gaming companies are now taking decisions to address and avoid these hacking problems. However, increasing and improving the defense of the gaming company will not be helpful unless they speared awareness among their users about their personal protection and account protection first. Since the target audience of games is younger, this problem can lead to serious consequences if not handled properly.
Read next: World Health Organization Finally Recognizes Gaming Disorder as Illness
