Platform Dependent
Online game players can protect themselves somewhat by practicing rigid safe computing . This will help them avoid some of the lures that would attract them to malicious Web sites. Keeping systems up to date and scanned regularly will also provide some assurances that infections have not succeeded.

However, many of the stealth attack methods will remain undiscovered, even with a higher level of awareness. Players who use Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)  Internet Explorer will remain directly in the line of hackers' fire.

"Most of these gaming attacks target ActiveX exploits in Microsoft IE. So the biggest risk is for Windows users," warned Henry.

However, the other platforms are not perfectly safe, he said.

Fighting Back
Aladdin eSafe provides online protection from malicious code and infected Web sites. The company's security products help block exploits in hacked sites, blogs and gamer-targeted spam attacks. It also blocks access to known malicious sites.

Released as a free public beta in September, Check Point's ZoneAlarm ForceField is a browser-based security product designed to safeguard Web surfing and online activities such as game playing. ForceField checks downloads for malicious content and protects Web sessions from threats already on the PC, like spyware and keyloggers.

Trend Micro recently released a Web security service for PlayStation 3  that will be free of charge until the end of April 2008. This service is developed as a module especially for PS3 using Trend Micro's (Nasdaq: TMIC)  own URL filtering technology. Users can block access to Web sites based on specific categories by going to the PS3 Internet Browser menu