Paklap.pk has another article that discusses the latest issue that has gone viral all over the internet. Cybercrime has been associated with the gaming industry from a very long time. First being associated with issuing pirated illegal copies of originally designed games that has now shifted to money laundering, the figure going to a maximum of $100 billion. The victims of such a scam are not only the producers but also the players as the game hacking business is increasing day by day in the gaming community. This sets out an alarm for the manufacturers, developers as well as the gamers on the security issue that should now be taken seriously.

A multi-operating system platform ‘STEAM’ was attacked by malware a couple of months back. Steam is a platform that acts as an e-store from where video games can be bought. Not just this, Steam gives a platform for the game inventories, trading cards and other goods that can bepurchased by the users through their account. The hackers get access to this useful data and use it to hack various user accounts, providing them with the options of loading their bank accounts with ample supply of cash.

An estimate has been predicted showing that up to 77,000 Steam accounts get robbed every month. Kaspersky lab has identified up to 1,200 types of hacking software. They function by making infected clones of famous gaming websites like RazerComms and TeamSpeak or by creating fake Steam extensions through Chrome browser. As these hackers break through the security system, they get exposed to various user credentials, they not only pump out their financial data but also take full advantage to what is stored in various user accounts to sell through Steam Trade for a couple of few bucks more. According to Steam website, “enough money moves around the system that stealing virtual Steam goods has become a real business for skilled hackers.”

The malware Steam Stealer is available at a very low cost in the black market. The cost is as low as $3, meaning it is at an easy access to all people involved in hacking websites. This is the most popular form of money making scheme which is being used by cyber criminals, reported by Kaspersky Lab. You must have wondered by now, what makes the attack successful? Numerous factors have been established, the most important being the outdated security system that Steam has. The developers and publishers of games mainly focus on making their codes complicated against reverse engineering and piracy while they fail to address the pin pricking issue, the money being stolen from user accounts after the hackers gain access to the user credentials. Their customers, the gamers, have also contributed to these money-stealing schemes as the anti-viruses slow down their systems causing them to lose the frame rate. Because of this, gamers disable anti-viruses or either uninstall them from their computers without fearing that their information present on the gaming website may get attacked and they might lose their account altogether.

Panopticon Lab, a video game security platform recently issued a report that claimed that cybersecurity issues have been addressed in all other online platform and the only platform that is still behind is the gaming industry. This has been addressed as an issue that is both harmful to the reputation of the industry and also hazardous to the revenue collected through the website. The co-founder of Panopticon Lab, Matthew Cook explained that the publishers are having an armor-less battle of putting up with nasty behaviors of unwanted players instead of fighting back and getting rid of fraudulent activities and building up a system that filters all this. Cook stresses, “Unfortunately, slow, manual processes like combing through suspected bad actor reports, or performing half-hearted quarterly ban activities just won’t cut anymore.

The bad guys have gotten too good, there’s simply too much financial opportunity for them to be dissuaded by reactive rules and reports.” No one is safe in the current era. Steam isn’t the only platform that has been attacked by cybercrime bullies. An attack on a small scale platform, Electronic Art’s gaming platform, Origin, was observed last year but this platform never addressed this issue by filing a report against this. There are other gaming platforms being attacked because of their compromised security system.

Now what to do when such an issue arises? Steam has improved Steam Guard functionality through which they block hijacking and authenticating accounts by Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator. Some new measures are also taken that hold up the traded items to lessen the risk of frauds. Gaming mode has been developed in anti-viruses that keep the gamers secure while holding back the notifications till the end of the session. While other security providing firms are working to discriminate dubious in-game activities by anomaly detection and analytics, a similar tool used in banking and financial firms.

Hoping for this issue to be addressed by the security system, users still are at stake. Will thesystem be updated as soon as possible for its users, this is still a question?