News Original From: TechNewsWorld

The design of online game architecture creates an open door for hackers, whose methods of operating thrive on exploits to enhance the opportunity for cheating. For instance, players' coordinates can be manipulated without other players knowing it. Cheaters can make real money at these games by generating counterfeit virtual wealth that can be distributed and converted into real wealth.

The video gaming industry has seen huge growth over the past few years with the emergence of the massive multiplayer online (MMO) model. These video games, examples of which include "World of Warcraft" and "Everquest II," allow thousands of players to interact simultaneously over the Internet in a persistent virtual world.

Free multiplayer games abound on the Internet, but millions of hard-core players ultimately gravitate to the subscription-based wares. For instance, "World of Warcraft," the largest of these games, recently surpassed nine million subscribers worldwide. Each of these subscribers to "World of Warcraft" is paying US 15 a month to play the game.

In the bad-guy realm of life online, hackers and malware  hoodlums go where the pickings are easy, where the crowds gather. Thus, Internet security experts warn game players that they face a greater risk of attack playing games online because few protections exist.

"Online gaming sites are a major distribution vehicle for malware. Malware payloads target specific games," John Carmichael, security trainer and engineer for Security Innovation, told TechNewsWorld.

Game Overload
Much of the security risk lies in the game distribution platform itself. This structural situation all but wipes out the reliability  of consumer-based computer security measures.

The gaming platform can't synchronize too many users at one time, so the game providers put a large chunk of their software on the client computer.

"This is outside the control of the Web site's trusted zone in players' Web browsers," Gary McGraw, security expert and author of the book Exploiting Online Games, told TechNewsWorld.

As a result, traditional firewall and antimalware software applications can't see any intrusions. Game players have no defenses.

"All the virus and malware software is reactive in nature. Nothing exists yet which is proactive. This is a similar problem faced by banking Web sites," explained Carmichael.

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