Online gamers, be on guard! A new Trojan named ‘Win32.OnLineGames.dr’
can rob your username and password of the game account, warn Security Experts
at the AntiVirus, AntiSpam and Content Security provider MicroWorld Technologies.
‘OnlineGames.dr’ comes into computers via offers and help notes
posted by crooks in game forums or by exploiting browser vulnerabilities. Written
in Delphi language, ‘OnlineGames.dr’ injects its DLL component into
running processes and places an ‘autorun.inf’ file in the root of each
drive to ensure that it gets activated every time a drive is opened.
Once
active, it snoops on user activity, steals confidential account information from
unwitting victims and sends it to a remote attacker. In a few cases, the Trojan
also posts this stolen information to certain malicious websites. With the username
and password of a virtual game player in his hand, the Trojan writer can directly
log on to the victim’s account and sell off the characters and other goods
for real world money.
This Trojan targets ‘Massively Multiplayer
Online Role-playing Games’ (MMORPG), particularly the ones like Gamania and
Wowtaiwan, meant for the Taiwanese audience. MMORPG is a genre of online computer
role-playing games where a huge number of players interact with each other in
a fantasy world. Every participant plays the role of a fantasy character and buys
and sells fictional goods online, while they also barter stuff among each other.
On many websites you can buy goods and characters using actual currency and do
vice versa.
“The magnitude of the online gaming economy is
much bigger than what meets the eye,” points out Govind Rammurthy, CEO of
MicroWorld Technologies. “The total amount of real world money connected
to all gaming sites is close to half a billion dollars, and there you can see
why malware writers are training their guns on virtual game players. Trojans are
known for their direct or indirect financial motives and this breed is no different”.
Password stealing Trojan variants lurking in the web are many and their
targets varied. While most of them eye credit card and banking information, some
of them go after eBay or Paypal accounts. A good number of Trojans send the stolen
information to its creator via email where as others connect to the attacker through
ports.
“Malware targeting online game accounts has been in
existence for a long time, but the stakes were never as high as they are now.
To combat this menace, gaming companies need to come up with more sophisticated
authentication procedures while users should deploy competent protection for their
computers. Because when you are pitted against a cyber criminal, neither does
he play by the rules of the game nor does he give you a second chance,” says
Govind Rammurthy.
MicroWorld
MicroWorld (www.mwti.net
) are the developers of the world's first Real-Time AntiVirus and Content Security
software eScan
for desktops and servers. Its communication security software, MailScan
is the first comprehensive e-mail scanner for your SMTP/POP3 Mail Server.
MicroWorld Winsock Layer (MWL) is the revolutionary technology
underlying these products, powering them to several certifications and awards
by some of the most prestigious testing bodies, notable among them being Virus
Bulletin, Checkmark, TUCOWS, Red Hat Ready, and Novell Ready. Combining their
powerful scanner with MWL technology, MicroWorld solutions provide a Real-Time
Proactive security for your systems. For network security of enterprises, eConceal
Firewall is the latest powerful offering from MicroWorld.
To learn
more, kindly visit http://www.mwti.net.
