Cheats, Hacks, and Cyberattacks: Threats to the Esports Industry in 2019 and Beyond

guest · Oct 30, 2019

Cheats, Hacks, and Cyberattacks: Threats to the Esports Industry in 2019 and Beyond
Esports competitions continue to gain momentum, making the entities involved more attractive targets for cybercrime
October 29, 2019
https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us...ts-to-the-esports-industry-in-2019-and-beyond

Esports is a fast growing industry with an increasing global audience, a growing pool of professional players, and a burgeoning market that spurs increased funding for competitions year on year. A Syracuse University study projects that esports viewership will match — and even surpass — traditional sports by 2021.

Unscrupulous players will be looking for advantages over their competitors, creating a market for game cheats in the underground. Hackers looking to profit from esports will target vulnerable players, push targeted malware, launch distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against tournaments and more.

Below we look at some of the biggest esports industry targets and outline some of the threats and risks they should prepare for.
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White paper: "Cheats, Hacks, and Cyberattacks - Threats to the Esports Industry in 2019 and Beyond"
(PDF - 4.50 MB): https://documents.trendmicro.com/assets/white_papers/wp-threats-to-the-esports-industry-in-2019-and-beyond.pdf

guest · Oct 30, 2019

mood said: ↑

Cheats, Hacks, and Cyberattacks: Threats to the Esports Industry in 2019 and Beyond
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Trend Micro blog entry: Current and Future Hacks and Attacks that Threaten Esports

Cheats and hacks are widely available in underground markets, catering to players looking for an unfair advantage in tournaments.
We predict that more threats will target the growing esports industry over the next few years. Here are four threats that we expect to increase in the near future:
Hardware hacks
Professional tournaments often allow players to bring in their own hardware, such as a mouse and keyboard. Other specialized methods have also been crafted to get around cheat-detection mechanisms.
DDoS attacks
DDoS attacks can cause serious lag issues, which is a critical issue in competitions where matches milliseconds can determine wins and losses.
A variety of DDoS-related items are already available in the underground, such as DDoS tools, paid services, and even DDoS protection.
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Vulnerable game servers
Servers will be a popular target for hackers — they are an avenue for game disruption and information theft. We scanned esports game-related servers using Shodan, including those run by private organizations and players and found 219,981 accessible assets as of July 25, 2019.
Targeted malware
There have been previous incidents of gamers specifically being targeted by ransomware.
Aside from selling elite accounts, attackers also compromise accounts to gain access to credit lines that allow them to buy in-game goods to resell.
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guest · Nov 2, 2019

Uncovering the secret world of malware-like cheats in video games
November 1, 2019
https://securelist.com/malware-like-cheats-in-video-games/94853/

An entire ecosystem has sprung up around the gaming industry, electronic sports, or eSports, being one of the main attractions for audiences eager to watch teams or individuals play against each other in tournaments broadcast on cable television.
A lot has happened since those days, and we can now encounter cheats that demonstrate malware-like behavior, using anti-detection techniques and evasion features that rival those used in rootkits and implants found in advanced persistent threats.

This paper will address the following questions, inspired by the Five Ws investigative methodology:
[...] When and where are cheats used? Can these programs be profiled or detected? What techniques can be used? [...] How do they avoid detection by developers and publishers? Is there really an arms race between two sides in the video game world?
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