Current Events: Cyber hackers turn to “virtual assets”

By elenau at 10:06 pm on February 6, 2009Comments Off on Current Events: Cyber hackers turn to “virtual assets”

According to the ESET’s 2008 Global Thread Report, there has been a spike in the goals and targets of cyber hackers. Rather than attempting to break into a bank account or deface a website they would go for something more subtle, but if planned properly, highly effective. 

Online gaming is a world wonder, it attracts a very large population of people; specifically the most widely growing genre is the MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). In such games such as World of Warcraft (WoW) characters accumulate what the article depicted as “virtual assets” which are essentially equivalent to real world items of actual value. The people who are engaging in these games are also required to invest real currency in order to play. 

Hackers are targeting players via social engineering standpoints and leveraging trust as a means of new attacks. They will first find a host character and infect him/her. Once they have control over the character’s account they will infect all those who trust the true identity of the character via URL or malware, sell all the “virtual assets” of the character for a bargain take the money and run to the next victim.

The article wraps up by discussing what can be done from a developer standpoint to enhance the security of the users’ accounts on such games as WoW. They discuss authenticator RSA key generators that must be used in order to log into the account every time. However, they finish off by saying the real flaw is not the software, but it is the human element that is the weakest link in the chain.

The event is popular due to the amount of people who socialize and devote hundreds of hours to the addictive game that is WoW. Because the game is such a big hit amongst the gaming community, it has sparked high flames and caused quite a commotion. People fear losing their time and money invested in the game and this is something they cannot afford to lose. 

As was discussed before and is well known today, humans are essentially the weak point in a system. They open up security holes and allow perpetrators to get in and take advantage of the system. One thing that could have been done and still can be, and should be done, is educating the common man about the dangers of the online world. They must understand that the online industry, although highly sophisticated and at some point seemly safe, can still present extremely high risks and dangers.

The broader issue around the event is that people in the gaming world and furthermore the online industry need to be conditioned and educated how to deal with the online world; how to keep themselves safe from online attacks and preventing themselves from being the next victim of such attackers. The real issue here is reinforcing the fact that the online world can be just as dangerous, if not more, than the real world.

Some of the reactions that can be foreseen coming out are uprisings of anger and disdain to the developers of the game for not “properly securing” the game. It seems that because the people who have been victimized have just lost so much, a great deal of animosity would be in their heads. They would not want to even hear that they themselves are the true reason for their own demise. 

In addition, corporations and enterprises that specialize in anti-malware tools would thrive on such an event. They would preach to the public about how their software can help ensure the safety of the user’s system and how the attack that happened to them was a result, not of their own fault, but the fault of the OS or Gaming industry itself.

After a while the fire would most likely die out and the event would be forgotten.

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