more than 7 million attacks were recorded in 2022

Experts from Kaspersky Lab in their new report “The Dark Side of Children’s Virtual Game Worlds” talked about the dangers that young users of online games may face.

According to the report, the number of cyberattacks against gamer children aged 3 to 16 increased by 57% in 2022 compared to 2021. More than 7 million attacks were recorded during the year.

Cyber ​​scammers have created fake websites for games like Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Apex Legends. In total, over 878,000 phishing pages were created for these four games in 2022, often offering downloads of popular cheats and game mods. Children who frequently play on their parents’ devices have followed these links and downloaded malicious files.

Experts noted that many children play on their parents’ computers and do not know how to secure their devices. As a result, cybercriminals can use children’s games as a way to gain access to personal data, credit cards and other sensitive information.

In addition, Poppy Playtime and Toca Life World were included in the rating of children’s games by the number of affected users. Kaspersky Lab also noted that the number of attacked users who download malicious files under the guise of Brawl Stars increased by 41% (by about 10,000 users).

Top 5 games by number of affected users:

• Minecraft – 140.5 thousand people;
• Roblox – 38.8 thousand people;
• Among Us – 27.5 thousand people;
• Poppy Playtime – 11.1 thousand people;
• Brawl Stars – 9.6 thousand people.

The company’s experts recommend that parents monitor the activity of their children on the Internet and teach them the rules of online safety. They also advise using special software to protect devices from cyber threats.