As the brand new faculty yr begins, college students are gearing up for brand new lessons and friendships and diving again into the digital world of video video games.
Nonetheless, this digital playground is just not as protected because it appears. Cybercriminals are more and more concentrating on younger players, exploiting their enthusiasm for in style video games.
This text explores the video games most beneath assault, the character of those threats, and the way dad and mom and younger players can defend themselves.
The Most Focused Video games
In keeping with a current report by cybersecurity specialists at Kaspersky, a number of in style video games have change into prime targets for cybercriminals.
The info from the worldwide Kaspersky Safety Community (KSN) highlights the video games with the best variety of assault makes an attempt from July 2023 to July 2024.
Are You From SOC/DFIR Groups? - Attempt Superior Malware and Phishing Evaluation With ANY.RUN - 14 day free trial
Here’s a breakdown of probably the most focused video games:
Recreation Identify | Variety of Assault Makes an attempt |
Minecraft | 3,094,057 |
Roblox | 1,649,745 |
Amongst Us | 945,571 |
Brawl Stars | 309,554 |
5 Nights at Freddy’s | 219,033 |
Fortnite | 165,859 |
Offended Birds | 66,754 |
The Legend of Zelda | 33,774 |
Toca Life World | 28,360 |
Valorant | 28,119 |
Mario Kart | 14,682 |
Subway Surfers | 14,254 |
Overwatch 2 | 9,076 |
Animal Crossing | 8,262 |
Apex Legend | 8,133 |
Minecraft tops the checklist with over three million assault makes an attempt, practically double the variety of assaults on Roblox in second place.
The excessive variety of assaults on Minecraft is principally as a result of reputation of mods and cheats, which regularly disguise malicious software program.
Frequent Threats and Scams
The varieties of threats concentrating on these video games are assorted, with downloaders, adware, Trojans, and backdoors being the most typical.
Downloaders, particularly, pose a big threat as they usually masquerade as respectable recreation enhancements however as an alternative obtain dangerous software program.
Phishing scams are one other prevalent risk. These scams usually promise free in-game gadgets like skins or forex, engaging younger players to enter their account credentials on fraudulent web sites.
As an example, a rip-off involving the sport Valorant and in style YouTuber MrBeast lured gamers with guarantees of free skins, solely to hijack their accounts.


The Lure of Freebies
Phishing schemes incessantly exploit the attract of free in-game forex or gadgets.
Many video games function with twin forex programs: comfortable forex, earned via gameplay, and laborious forex, bought with actual cash.
Scammers usually promise free laborious forex, main gamers to phishing websites the place they threat dropping their gaming accounts and delicate private information.


A notable instance includes Pokémon GO, the place gamers are tricked into getting into their credentials free of charge forex, solely to be redirected to extra harmful scams concentrating on monetary data.
Defending Younger Players
Dad and mom and guardians should educate younger players in regards to the dangers of downloading mods from untrusted sources and getting into private data on unfamiliar web sites to safeguard younger players.
Listed here are some actionable ideas:
- Use Trusted Sources: Encourage downloading video games and mods solely from official platforms, equivalent to app shops or the sport’s official web site.
- Educate on Phishing: Educate youngsters to acknowledge phishing makes an attempt and to be cautious of provides that appear too good to be true.
- Set up Safety Software program: Use dependable cybersecurity options that provide real-time safety towards malware and phishing assaults.
- Monitor On-line Exercise: Control the video games and web sites your youngsters go to and focus on any uncommon exercise with them.
By staying knowledgeable and vigilant, dad and mom and younger players can benefit from the digital world safely, liberating the enjoyable of gaming from the threats lurking on-line.
What Does MITRE ATT&CK Expose About Your Enterprise Safety? - Watch Free Webinar!