Games are now drawing more traffic than e-mails, a fact confirmed by a recent Nielsen study which found that in June 2010, computer users spent more time playing games online (10.2%) than checking email (8.3%).
The increased popularity of gaming supposedly brings with it greater security risks due to unsafe player behavior and more cyber-criminals following the crowds in pursuit of new victims. As a result, it is more necessary than ever to fully protect computer systems while gaming online.
Gamers are at risk of encountering malware as they access and play online titles, because they often disable virus protection in a bid to squeeze as much performance from their machines as possible. This “unprotected gaming behavior” is a gamer response to some antivirus programs hogging computer resources.
“Gamers are a susceptible target for hackers because it is assumed that they are preoccupied with their game and not concerned with the security of their computer,” said Ondrej Vlcek, Chief Technical Officer at Avast Software. “As the gaming industry continues to grow, hackers will inevitably develop more ways to target this massive group.”
Following is a sample of September 2010’s most infected gaming-related websites, according to Avast:
-Gamefactoryinteractive.com
-Games-digest.com
-Mariogamesplay.com
-anywhere-games.com
-galacticflashgames.com
-towerofdefense.com
So the moral of the story? Don’t deactivate you anti-virus while gaming. You may squeeze 1 or 2 extra frames per second, but you are leaving your PC open to A WORLD OF DIGITAL PAIN! :O
Loading ...
