The world of videogames has become a highly competitive environment, leading many gamers to take drastic steps to stand out from the rest. A recent report mentions that two Apex Legends players were ejected from the platform for deploying denial of service (DoS) attacks targeting Xbox servers with the intention of affecting other players.
Connor Ford, moderator of the game in terms of security, mentioned that “irrefutable evidence that two high-ranking players were attacking Apex Legends servers” was detected; adding that up to 5 out of 6 players could have been affected by this campaign. Additional details were posted on r/apexlegends Reddit forum over the weekend.
In a video posted by Ford (which was removed), cheaters can be seen losing a game followed by loss of connection for all players; once the connection was re-established, the cheaters appeared as winners and honest players were classified as losers of the game. At the moment the identity of the expelled players is ignored, although it is a fact that fans of this video game will not find it difficult to intuit who the cheaters are.
Although there have always been ways to cheat in video games, this unfair practice is becoming increasingly important, mainly because of the rise of eSports: “This is a market worth approximately $2 billion. There are many interests involved and many players will not hesitate to play all their cards, including cheating,” says specialist Dirk Schrader.
The gamer community frequently requests the inclusion of new security mechanisms to prevent these malicious practices, although their implementation is not always sufficient to prevent an attack due to the advancement of hacking techniques.
Another emerging security risk related to video games is attacks on mobile game users, who have become a frequent target of account theft attacks: “These attacks consist of sending phishing links with which threat actors try to trick mobile gaming fans,” Schrader adds.
Finally, the expert concludes by mentioning that attackers could also create alternative versions of popular video games distributed through unofficial platforms, as security systems in the App Store or Play Store would not allow their publication. Schrader mentions that these APKs are usually “trojanized”, which means that while they work in the same way as the legitimate app, they contain malware hidden in their code.
To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
