“We have seen a large increase in these types of Trojans targeting online gamers, as role-playing games have become a big business,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.
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A new spyware worm that steals information from players of a popular online game, as well as from Yahoo e-mail users, has been detected by security authority Sophos, which described the threat as representing a new trend among malware practitioners.
The company reports that the worm PrsKey-A uses keystroke logging to obtain usernames, passwords and other assets from players of the Priston Tale online role-playing game.
The worm lurks in the background, waiting for users to enter either the Priston Tale or the Yahoo e-mail system, then begins capturing keystrokes.
Virtual Assets and Real Cash
“We have seen a large increase in these types of Trojans targeting online gamers, as role-playing games have become a big business,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.
In highly competitive amusements like Priston Tale, with millions of players worldwide, some are launching attacks to steal other players’ assets, such as virtual weapons or money, and improve their positions in the virtual worlds, Cluley explained.
“Those assets are then sold in the real world, where there’s a growing demand from online gaming fanatics,” he said. What is disturbing, he noted, is that this spyware worm also steals information from the Yahoo Web-based e-mail system, giving hackers an opportunity to obtain infected users’ identities.
Spyware Goes Mainstream
Thus far, damage from PrsKey has been minimal, Cluley said, although Sophos advises computer users to make sure that their antivirus software is up to date and that security patches are applied as they are made available.
Yankee Group analyst Andrew Jaquith suggested that attacks on gamers is evidence that spyware is going mainstream. “If the worm can embed itself in a user’s program, it becomes a widespread problem,” he said.
This kind of malware also presents a challenge for game publishers and other content providers attempting to add networking features to their products, Jaquith said. “The urge to make the games more user-friendly and draw more participants is outweighing the need to examine security designs,” he said.
Cluley noted that other popular multiplayer online games targeted by viruses and Trojan horses in the past include Lineage, Outwar and Legend of Mir 2. Last month, Sophos reported that a gang had been arrested in South Korea for allegedly stealing from online gamers.
