According to this not at all alarmist report, 60% of all trojans on the Interweb are aimed at online games.
40 per cent of all trojans are aimed at Lineage 2 with Blizzard’s World of Warcraft being the second most popular target with 20 per cent of all known trojans aimed at extracting information from its players.
Personally I thought most trojans were aimed at making zombie PCs to create the 99% of my email that is spam for porn sites, but guess that’s just me.
#1 by caroline on September 13th, 2007
Hey there,
This is Caroline from SocialRank.
I am trying to get in touch with you but couldn’t find your email address.
We’re launching a new Web 2.0 site dedicated to Gaming community and we have started indexing your blog posts as part of our
content filter.
I’d like to send you an invite to a beta preview. Can you get back to me with your email address.
Mine is caroline@sweetgaming.com
Kind regards,
Caroline
http://www.SocialRank.com
#2 by Requiel on September 13th, 2007
Hmm. Security industry identifies people who spend a lot of time online and use credit cards as in dire need of security products shock.
#3 by Rasputin on September 13th, 2007
Hey there,
this is Ras from onlinegamers.
could you get back to me? I have Nigerian Princes to sell you.
…
But seriously, I’d be all about the spam if I got some small cut of what the zombie bastards were pushing out.
#4 by Andrew Crystall on September 13th, 2007
There was a pretty “successful” one for Eve Online a while back. A website with a story of a spat between eve dupers, leading to one of them putting his utility up for free on his website. Cue several thousand people downloading and infecting themselves with a keylogger.
#5 by SavageX on September 13th, 2007
Hi, this is Savage X of The Morlocks, I have l337 gear sitting here for you. Brain Multiplexers for multiboxing and plenty of speed so you NEVER HAVE TO SLEEP AGAIN.
But since I couldn’t find your email address I couldnt give you the gear, but when I do find your addy, ill be sure to send you the links to the torrents for BIG MAMAS 14: Slap n Surf and TRAILER PARK TRAMPS 5: The Everquest Collection.
Later!
#6 by Joe on September 13th, 2007
“Personally I thought most trojans were aimed at making zombie PCs to create the 99% of my email that is spam for porn sites, but guess that’s just me.”
They are. Greylisting ftw.
#7 by Joe on September 13th, 2007
And seriously, lose the gayjax. Its absolutely terrible.
#8 by Oz on September 13th, 2007
The irony of a spambot taking the first post is pure gold.
#9 by Soulflame on September 13th, 2007
Hating on Web 2.0? DEMERIT
#10 by Theogrin on September 13th, 2007
Naturally, since said trojans require quite a heavy amount of social engineering (download this to dupe for free!!11!), those poor, pitiful fools who will sell their soul for a set of epics are easy targets. I wouldn’t be surprised if the amount of keyloggers and similar trojans has a lot to do with the ‘Dark Side’ of RMT – nothing like cracking a powergamer’s account and selling all his stuff on eBay.
And who’s to say that these trojans couldn’t be used to initiate a little spam business on the side, while they’re at it?
#11 by Wanderer on September 14th, 2007
win32.wow has been planted by drive-by downloads (via an IE exploit, of course) from WoW-related websites, including some popular ones owned by a RMT company to remain nameless.
Don’t think that just because you’re too smart to “dupe for free!!!1!1!” you’re safe. They’ve gotten people I know who thought they were smart, too.
Use good antivirus, antispyware, and firewall programs. Update them regularly. Don’t use Internet Explorer. Don’t open unknown email attachments. And if you’re as paranoid as I am, don’t use your gaming computer for any other online activity (an old beater of a second PC and a KVM switch make this easy).