Cyber-criminals Targeting Online Gaming Websites

adeelarshad82 writes "According to a June 2010 Nielsen NetView survey on Internet usage, online gaming has overtaken e-mail in terms of the total percentage of time Americans spend online. Only social networking scores higher. On average, online gaming now consumes a staggering 407 million hours of U.S. citizens' time per year. Unfortunately, Nielsen's not the only one that noticed this trend; cybercriminals have taken note as well and are taking advantage of this by infecting games sites—from legitimate forums and tutorial sites to shadier download sites—to attack the unwary. Fortunately though, Avast has published a list of worst gaming sites."

Another security article boils down to one thing..

[digitaldc]

...keep your Anti-Virus software updated and running at all times.

Re:

[shoehornjob]

Honestly I'm beginning to think I'm better off with a hardened router with no upnp enabled and rules for traffic on certain ports. a good firewall is a convenient way to track what programs are going in/out but the AV sucks up too many cpu cycles.

Re:

[mlts]

AV programs tend to be easily bypassed. Instead, use what the parent suggested, but add AdBlock, IP blackholing, sandboxie, BetterPrivacy, and other items. These utilities will do a better job for keeping the Web browser from being a vector of infection than any AV software out there. If you need AV for Windows, grab MSE and call it done. If really paranoid, run your browsing in a VM that rolls back all changes.

My solution

[Weaselmancer]

If you need some decently secure web browsing, boot a Knoppix CD. By default it doesn't even mount your hard drives. And all changes to the ram side of the unionfs filesystem expire with a reboot.

Re:

[Weaselmancer]

Oh that's right - I forgot. Knoppix runs on unicorn farts and zero point energy to make pictures on the screen. Never even touches the CPU. I should have mentioned that.

Thanks for the reminder.

Re:

[mlts]

Knoppix should be in every person's toolbox. I use it for recovering systems, as well as zeroing out drives and partition tables before installing an OS.

However, that is a good point: If you need to do something without leaving a footprint on the system, or have all persistent data be moved to an encrypted (LUKS or TC) storage medium, Knoppix excels at this.

Re:

[NetNinja]

My Level 80 Rogue shall stop them! Stop! Ninja Time!

The list

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, here is the list of the worst offenders:

  Gamesfactoryinteractive.com

  Games-digest.com

  Mariogamesplay.com

  Anywhere-games.com

  Galacticflashgames.com

  Towerofdefense.com - hmm, this is one of the favourites of my kids...

So how do I set up my kid's netbooks (Firefox on WinXP) to not go there, for all accounts?

Re:The list

[Stavr0]

C:\WINDOWS\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS
0.0.0.0 Gamesfactoryinteractive.com
0.0.0.0 Games-digest.com
0.0.0.0 Mariogamesplay.com
0.0.0.0 Anywhere-games.com
0.0.0.0 Galacticflashgames.com
0.0.0.0 Towerofdefense.com

Re:The list

[Abstrackt]

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS
0.0.0.0 Gamesfactoryinteractive.com
0.0.0.0 Games-digest.com
0.0.0.0 Mariogamesplay.com
0.0.0.0 Anywhere-games.com
0.0.0.0 Galacticflashgames.com
0.0.0.0 Towerofdefense.com

FTFY.

Re:

[by (1706743)]

Is there an equivalent to /etc/hosts in WinXP? That would be a reasonable first step (point entries to 127.0.0.1 or whatever).

Obviously this isn't robust and could be easily be thwarted with a proxy, the knowledge IP address, root access, etc., but it's super-easy to implement (for a *NIX user).

Re:

[Cwix]

Direct those urls to 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file.

Re:

[killmenow]

Start->Run->"notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts"

Go to new blank line and copy/paste:

127.0.0.1 gamesfactoryinteractive.com
127.0.0.1 games-digest.com
127.0.0.1 mariogamesplay.com
127.0.0.1 anywhere-games.com
127.0.0.1 galacticflashgames.com
127.0.0.1 towerofdefence.com

(Save the file)

Profit.

Re:

[electron sponge]

You're correct. You do need a reboot before the changes will take effect.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't have to reboot windows for host file changes to take affect, at least I have never needed to on Windows 2000, XP, Vista or 7....

You might have to close your web browser, in rare cases an ipconfig /flushdns but reboot isn't needed.

Re:

[adonoman]

In Vista and later, you'll have to open notepad with "Run as administrator...", or you'll be denied access.

New process: Start -> "notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" (without quotes) -> ctrl-shift-enter -> Allow escalation, then continue as above

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[tehcyder]

Why not just use the built in System Restore on Windows? Is there a major problem with it? It's always worked when my kids have creatively fsked up Windows.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[tehcyder]

So how do I set up my kid's netbooks (Firefox on WinXP) to not go there, for all accounts?

I am amazed that you actually got some sensible answers rather than the expected "Windoze is 4 luzrs, use GNU Hurd instead".

Gaming Websites??

[Modern]

Those must be the most infested, never before known gaming websites in internet history. I think they must of paid somebody to put those sites in the article.

Re:

[Wiarumas]

I know. Look at those URLs. I would never visit some site with a spam-esque URL. Check out my new games at http://www.funzeldamario-games.com/malware/allyourbasearebelongtous.php [funzeldamario-games.com]

407e6

[dhTardis]

On average, online gaming now consumes a staggering 407 million hours of U.S. citizens' time per year.

A whole hour and 18 minutes per person per year? That's nearly 0.0015% of the time! I don't see how the US ever gets anything done at that rate.

Re:407e6 [Mod Parent Up Please]

[/dev/zero]

Indeed; this was my first thought also. Hardly staggering at all, is it? I'd mod you up + Informative had I mod points to do so.

The innumeracy of the summary, OTOH, is staggering... Come on, people, at least do a quick back-of-the-envelope sanity check, OK?

Re:

[jc42]

innumeracy of the summary, OTOH, is staggering... Come on, people, at least do a quick back-of-the-envelope sanity check, OK?

Envelope? I've heard of that, I think, but where might I find one?

(Oh, wait; I found one. It was down in the basement, right there on a shelf next to the typewriter. ;-)

Re:

[AlamedaStone]

Envelope? I've heard of that, I think, but where might I find one?

Glass houses, kid. I remember when I read this [ufopinball.com] and laughed. Learn from my mistake. It will happen to you too!

Oh, and get the hell off my lawn.

Re:

[Nadaka]

That number has to be off by a lot. There are what? 8 million WoW players? If WoW was the only game in the US, each WoW player would only be playing 51 hours a year? I've known people who logged that much time every week in that game and even my friend with 2 kids gets at least 8 hours of WoW a week.

Re:

[KingMotley]

I know people who log twice that every week, and amazingly enough, almost 3 times that on some weeks (release days).

Re:

[Cussin_IT]

Not necessarily: If you assume that half of the population aren't (online) gamers, then the number of hours per gamer doubles.

I'd be willing to guess that only one person in 5 is tech-savy enough to be a gamer (remember that 'the population' includes octogenarians and infants), and that only half of them actually are, meaning that each gamer in this senario is clocking up an average of 510 hours per year, or 9 and a bit per week.

Re:

[KDR_11k]

He's talking about WoW subscribers, those are definitely online gamers or they wouldn't pay 15$ a month for a specific online game.

Re:

[tehcyder]

Yes, because obviously you don't have to exclude all the non-internet users, all the non-gaming internet users and so on.

Worst gaming site list in case of slashdotting

[Anonymous Coward]

Worst offenders, as of October 6, 2010:

  Gamesfactoryinteractive.com
  Games-digest.com
  Mariogamesplay.com
  Anywhere-games.com
  Galacticflashgames.com
  Towerofdefense.com
  ea.com

Gambling?

[vlm]

Now, by gambling, do they mean e-trade and td-datek-ameritrade or whatever its called now?

Or checking out zillow zestimates and buying real estate, because real estate only goes up?

I believe second life got rid of all its casinos. Is second life still online?

Then theres the gamble of risking your reputation on online dating sites...

Pr0n?

[vlm]

So whats up with the 'if all us internet time were condensed into one hour' not having any time for pr0n? Or is that assumed diplomatically to be the 20m 36s piece of the pie chart?

What the heck is a portal and what have people been doing there for 2m 36s out of every internet hour? Is that the "make AOL your homepage" that only newbies do?

Re:

[Jesus_666]

Portals are what you're not thinking in. They're also where all the cake is, as reputable sources tell me.

...or they're these AOLish websites offered by every single ISP, TV station, webmail provider, gas station...

So Avast loosing market share?

[xiando]

I read the summary as "Avast is loosing market share and are desperately trying to increase shareholder value". That is pretty how I read all the press-releases from anti-virus vendors who "discover" that "the virus" is being spread on the "Internets". BUY OUR PRODUCT OR YOUR COMPUTER IS GOING TO EXPLODE! Maby these viruses really are a big problem. I don't know and don't really care, I use GNU/Linux

Free wasn't enough?

[Jeng]

I'd agree with you if I hadn't been using their service for around 5 years for free, and had all my friends and relatives who needed a good home AV also use it for free.

They do have a paid version, but the free version is just fine. All they ask for is a little information you input yourself so its not like you even need to tell the truth except for a valid email address.

Surprise! Summary is wrong!

[Myji Humoz]

According to TFA US citizens spend 407 million hours a MONTH on online games, not 407 million hours a year. Slight difference.

Gaming is 10% of the time spend online now, and it's pretty obvious that the average American spends more than 4 hours a year online.

Re:

[MozeeToby]

As someone up above posted, that's still only 1 hour, 18 minutes per month. That doesn't seem like much... but then I start to consider that probably a small fraction actually plays online games... I bet the mode (to the nearest hour) is probably closer to 20 hours a month than 1.

Re:

[Arthur Grumbine]

As someone up above posted, that's still only 1 hour, 18 minutes per month. That doesn't seem like much... but then I start to consider that probably a small fraction actually plays online games...

I think it also depends on whether the respondents who play Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc. classified their time spent on those games as Online Games or Social Network. I definitely have a hard time imagining 1hr 18min/month average with all the Facebook games thrown in.

Sites powered by Google Ads

[Animats]

Looking at the list of "evil sites":

• Gamesfactoryinteractive.com - not in DNS, not in Whois. The article probably has the domain wrong.
• Games-digest.com - domain registered in Korea.
• Mariogamesplay.com - has Google ads
• Anywhere-games.com - has Google ads
• Galacticflashgames.com - On Google's "This site may harm your computer" list, yet it contains Google ads.
• Towerofdefense.com - hosted by HostGator

I ran them all through SiteTruth [sitetruth.com], which, unsurprisingly, can't find a legit business behind any of them and thus down-rates them as junk sites.

As usual, THIS IS A WINDOWS PROBLEM

[toby]

Typically not mentioned in summary.

Re:

[BobMcD]

Agreed. NOBODY uses WINDOWS anymore. Especially not those with poor security habits.

Re:

[devellison]

And not a C-64 problem, the OTHER system with lots of games also commonly used for website browsing...

Re:

[brkello]

This is a Games article. It doesn't need to.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

so, other* == porn?

[TravisHein]

Im sure they were trying to be family friendly with their questions, but realistically, there has to be (more than none at all), and it would be interesting to see if it was above or below the gambling use.