In the first half of 2021, the Russian mobile games market was among the world's top five leaders in terms of downloads. Therefore, hackers began to actively attack Russians playing on smartphones. In online games with prizes, attackers can crack the code to get rewards instead of honest participants. In games with registration, hackers hunt for the personal data of players.
According to forecasts, the volume of the Russian video game market by the end of this year is expected to amount to $2,236 million. Along with the growing interest of consumers in video games, the activity of hackers and scammers is also growing.
Basically, the key to obtaining personal data, logins and access to the victim's computer is phishing. There are various schemes: from simple chat correspondence with malicious links to fraudulent sites where players are offered to improve statistics, download various hacks containing keyloggers or spyware.
It is quite simple to distinguish a game in which there is a chance to meet a dishonest player. You just need to find out if the application is using any anti-cheat (software for tracking and preventing the use of funds for cheating), as well as how often it is updated. Such information can be found in the public domain, often the developers of a particular game write about it themselves.
According to Panda Security in Russia and the CIS, cryptojacking malware can also be added to the current problems of gamers. Cryptojacking is the use of devices (computers, smartphones, tablet PCs, or even servers) without the knowledge of their owners for the purpose of hidden mining of cryptocurrencies.
The best way not to become a victim of such fishing is not to download pirated software. If the user notices that the PC or mobile device has become slower or fails, then there is a high probability that the gamer is unknowingly "mining" cryptocurrency for hackers.
