Cybercrime Surges in Gaming Sector: US Leads with 167% Increase in Attacks

The gaming sector has seen a significant surge in cybercrime, with the US leading the way with a 167% increase in incidents over the past year. According to a report by cybersecurity firm Akamai, titled Gaming Respawned, the US is the primary target for cyber-attacks, followed by Switzerland, India, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Akamai’s latest State of the Internet (SOTI) report highlights that cyber-criminals are drawn to the gaming industry because of its value, stating that “Cyber-criminals know there is value in gaming, and they will continue to invent ways of getting it or exploiting the flow of virtual funds.”

The report details that cyberattacks on player accounts and gaming companies have increased dramatically, with a focus on web application and API attacks. The top three web application attacks identified were Local File Inclusion (LFI) attacks, SQL injection (SQLi), and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). These attacks exploit vulnerabilities in web applications to gain unauthorized access or disrupt services. LFI attacks accounted for 38% of attacks, SQLi for 34%, and XSS for 24%.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are another major threat, increasing by 5% year-on-year and accounting for 37% of all attacks worldwide. DDoS attacks overwhelm targeted servers with a flood of internet traffic, disrupting normal operations. Notable incidents include a major DDoS attack on GGPoker during the 2020 Online WSOP, which affected various services, and ACR's cancellation of their Million Dollar Sunday event in 2018 due to ransomware issues. Additionally, Electronic Arts (EA) suffered a massive data breach last year, with 780GB of data, including game source code, being advertised for sale on underground hacking forums. Six tribal-owned casinos in Oklahoma were also hit by a ransomware attack, highlighting the widespread nature of these threats.