fraud on the internet never stop, not even in the face of fun Now the criminals in fact point to online games. From World of Warcraft the least known Maple Story , millions of people spend their time developing their characters or objects that get - virtually stolen - are sold on a black market that is worth three million euro. What 's online gaming market is growing rapidly and at the same time breeding ground for scammers because they are not controlled. The game industry is indeed a thing to children, worth $ 10 billion in 1990, has reached $ 50 billion today and is estimated che fra quattro anni ne varrà 84. Per fare un confronto, l'industria musicale vale tre volte di meno. Una piccola parte di queste somme viene spesa ogni anno per comprare o sviluppare oggetti virtuali che esistono solo online: il valore di questa fetta di mercato è stimato intorno agli 8 miliardi di dollari ed è proprio questo settore che sta diventando interessante per i cybercriminali.
L'interesse della criminalità per questo settore è confermato dai numeri, diffusi dall'azienda produttrice di antivirus Kaspersky Lab: dal 2002 si sono registrati 1,8 milioni di applicazioni malware pensate per i giochi online e solo in Italia ci sono circa 4600 attacchi al giorno in questo settore.
Al centro dell'interesse are games like World of Warcraft (technically called MMORPG, online role playing games mass) in which each player competes against other real people in a virtual world. In this parallel reality have played a key role in the time (the more you play, your character becomes more powerful) and virtual objects that you own (which are swords, axes and armor). It is these objects at the center of a black market stolen from the rightful owner by viruses or phishing emails are retained for sale on eBay and can be worth a few euro or even a thousand dollars.
"We analyzed - Christian Funk says analyst Kaspersky Lab - items relating to World of Warcraft offered for sale on eBay for a period of a month. The value of an item up for auction, the average was € 126. It 's hard enough to define the overall value of this market, but we estimate it at several million euro. "The more games targeted - in addition to the previously mentioned WoW - are Lineage , Perfect World , and Guild Wars In the past, Diablo .
Two main methods by which fraud is perpetrated: the phishing emails and viruses themselves. "Phishing - Funk continues - is used mainly by criminals less technically minded: he simply send an email with which to attract users to click on a url, then create a simple page where to land users and send hundreds of millions of mail. The creation of malware is more complex to program a virus that infects the PC first and then wait quietly that you enter the game. Then send your username and password and the creator of the malware, which can use it for fraud. "In the result is the same: the precious equipment ends up for sale on the internet and the criminal will pocket hundreds of euro at your expense .
To protect the solutions are always the same, but are rejected by most average users: antivirus active system and operational programs to date and be careful not to click on links that are sent through the mail. If you really are curious, look for a confirmation that information on the Internet and avoid click directly on the mail: it is better to rewrite the address in your browser. Or just click and continue to play quietly.
Source: Republic
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