Online games have been a popular form of entertainment for people for decades. Over the past few years, gaming has become a professional activity for some users, and esports continues to gain momentum and receive worldwide recognition.
In particular, tournaments with huge prize pools for a million-strong audience of viewers are held worldwide. According to Goldman Sachs, by 2022, esports revenue could reach approximately 3 billion dollars. At the same time, the field of education is also keeping up, with some universities offering courses for professional players.
All of this inspires generations of active players to improve their online gaming skills in order to eventually become future esports stars. To earn the right to participate in the most important tournaments as part of an elite team, gamers have to train a lot. However, success depends not only on skills and abilities during the game, as the popularity of online games has increased the number of potential risks that gamers may encounter. In this regard, ESET specialists have prepared a list of the most common threats for gamers.
Esports attract the attention of malicious actors. Interference in the gaming process
One of the main threats to gamers online is other players who are willing to deceitfully gain an advantage over their opponents. For this, the attackers can use scripts and specially modified programs that are capable of determining the trajectory of a shot, the cooldown time of opponents’ abilities, and automating certain mechanisms. For example, well-known computer bots were used to interfere with the game Counter-Strike, which help see through walls or automatically shoot at the opponent.
Competitive play typically takes place on secure Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) servers, which detect various modified programs and scripts on users’ devices. However, there are ways to bypass this system. In particular, the involvement of professional players in the use of modified programs ordered on hacker forums was discovered. As a rule, such programs cost thousands of dollars because they are custom-made.
In case of detecting suspicious activities during the game, gamers can report it to the developer. In the professional arena, such actions lead to bans on further play, fines, and other sanctions.
2. Malware
Various types of malware can also pose a threat to gamers. Depending on the cybercriminals’ goals, the methods and tools of infection vary. One of the mechanisms for excluding active players from the game is an attack using ransomware. As a rule, such attacks are carried out specifically to block game files, which in turn will lead to the player’s exclusion from participating in an important match. As a result, there may be a loss of access to data and financial costs for its recovery or payment of a ransom (but, of course, this does not guarantee the return of the files).
Another threat to gamers is keylogging software. As a rule, such malware is used to steal player data upon login with the aim of gaining access to the account and subsequently blocking it. Besides this, the victim may lose everything that was in their account: rank, unlocked or purchased items, and other valuables. Also, when a credit card is linked to an account, attackers can make purchases at the victim’s expense. Sometimes players can become targets due to an error or flaw in the game client, an example being the infection of the game download platform Origin.
3. DDoS attack as a threat to gamers
The outcome of the game can always change.
DDoS attacks are attacks during which computers or a network are overloaded to the point of disrupting the operation of a host connected to the Internet. In online games, this means the delay between the user’s actions and the server’s response, where the video game is being played. In esports, you have to make decisions in seconds, and a delay can play a crucial role in the game’s final moments. Just like individual players, all team members can become victims of attacks to worsen the game’s results.
An example is now the inactive ZONE team, which has become the target of a considerable number of attacks. Subsequently, the gamers deleted unnecessary programs and were forced to play in one room to avoid online communication, but even this did not save them from another attack. Victims of such attacks are not only game enthusiasts but also giants of gaming services like Microsoft and Sony.
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