A billion gamers face fraud risk

 

Gallery

Posted on 21 Nov 2008 at 14:58

Online gaming fraud is becoming a serious real-world security threat that could affect up to one billion PC owners, a European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) warned today.

The failure to recognise the importance of protecting real-money value locked up in the 'grey-zone' of the virtual worlds such as Second Life, has lead to a "year of online-world fraud", according to a new ENISA report.

A survey in the report shows that 30 per cent of users have recently lost some form of virtual property through fraud. In less than a year, more than 30,000 new malicious programs have been detected specifically targeting accounts and property in online games and virtual worlds.

ENISA warns that such malware is designed to steal virtual property accumulated in a user's account, which then can be sold for real money.

"While annual real-money sales of virtual goods is estimated at over £1 billion worldwide, users can do very little if their virtual property is stolen. They are a very soft target for cyber-criminals," said Giles Hogben, editor of the report put together by a group of industry, academic and government experts.

"There are one billion registered players of online games worldwide and the malware targeting them affects everyone with a computer connected to the internet."

The ENISA survey of 1.500 respondents in the UK, Sweden and Germany shows that most people incorrectly think their avatar cannot reveal anything about their real identity. "People should take just as much care of their personal data in these environments as in any other online context," said Andrea Pirotti, executive director of ENISA.

"Multiplayer online games are especially vulnerable to denial of service attacks because of their centralised architecture and poorly authenticated clients," the report warns.

Author: Robert Jaques