Online gaming is becoming a very lucrative industry, with more users owning online gaming accounts. According to a survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab, 71 percent of people surveyed in the UAE regularly play online games, up to 76 percent in the 25 to 34 age group and 74 percent in those aged Between 16 and 24 years old. Online gaming accounts are likely to benefit Internet criminals, who can sell accounts on the black market. Despite the electronic threats to players, they often leave their accounts vulnerable to hacking attempts, exposing their achievements in play and personal data and perhaps their financial income at risk.

The growing global audience in the gaming world, led by online players such as Steam, the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, is estimated at between 2.2 billion and 2.6 billion players. This makes the online gaming sector a specific target for cybercriminals who hope to disrupt operations on the Internet and steal data such as Passwords and bank card information, which is evident from recent attacks on the Xbox and PlayStation platforms .

Cybercriminals seek to reach a vast array of potential targets to choose from, with numbers indicating that more than half of Internet users play games regularly on the Internet. Moreover, games have become an important aspect of the lives of many users who go to games when they are bored or lonely and entertained with their online friends. Therefore, successful attacks can cause serious inconvenience to their victims who may be psychologically affected by losing access to their favorite game accounts Temporarily or permanently, as well as theft of their data, as a result of loss of hours or days of achievement and progress in the games and in the construction of their personal files, in addition to any funds that may be placed in those accounts.

Eighteen per cent of respondents in the UAE and one of their online gaming accounts for attempted attacks or successful attacks said their accounts were “a target for cybercriminals”, up to 23 percent for men.

Rather than being a home-based activity, games are practiced in different times of daily life for many users, as evidenced by the fact that nearly 40 percent of respondents in the UAE use smart phones to play games online, which shows The importance of game accounts when the owners. Nearly 30 percent of users use public wireless Internet networks to log into their gaming accounts, while 51 percent say they do not take any additional security measures when using these networks, even though smartphones are not inherently safe, Exposing them to clear security risks. Adding to the risk is that only 10 percent of users considered the games account one of three accounts requiring strong passwords to protect them.

Moreover, victims may easily lose access to many other accounts, such as e-mail and social media accounts, because of the interconnectedness of many online profiles today. While this may sometimes cause psychological damage to users who play games for entertainment, it can cause serious damage to professional players, some of whom make money from playing.

“Having a treasure trove of personal information on the Internet offers cyber criminals more opportunities than ever to capture user data, which can be sold on the digital black market,” said Andre Mocola, head of consumer business at Kaspersky Lab. Internet enthusiasts and professionals are concerned about the possibility of hacking their accounts or even being unable to access them by forgetting passwords. ”

“This is the dilemma users face every day because many have the least secure options of using the same password for all accounts, or simple passwords that are easy for hackers to guess. However, users will not be assured of the safety of their accounts and enjoy protection and not lose their efforts and achievements in the wind, unless they took appropriate precautions and used strong passwords and different for each account.

Many Kaspersky Lab products include password management tools to help users keep their data secure, such as the Kaspersky Password Manager tool available in the Kaspersky Total Security solution. It stores all passwords in a secure digital vault, allowing easy access to computers, Macs and smartphones. A special tool accomplishes the hard part of the work by automatically authoring strong and flexible passwords, while the user only needs to remember one master password in order to access all his accounts on the Internet. The user can check the strength of the passwords he currently uses by visiting Kaspersky Lab Password Check.

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