SimCity, Diablo and World of Warcraft Blamed for Increase in Viruses

SimCity, Diablo III and World of Warcraft have been blamed for an increase in viruses among gamers. Some people have been turning off their firewalls and anti-virus software in an attempt to get always-on games to work, ESET have said. Lag and other online problems are causing people to hit the off button on their online security and an ESET poll has revealed the majority of people don’t realize what they’re letting themselves in for…

31% of the 1000 polled in the UK admitted to disabling their anti-virus software before playing an online game, while 40% said they wouldn’t recognize a virus anyway. 25% said they had no interest in learning about the viruses targeted at them. With the biggest PC games taking the always-on route – including SimCity and Diablo – this is going to become a bigger risk as virus makers catch on and find ways to target more specifically. MMOs and MOBA titles are also leading gamers to go without protection (like the top League of Legends players need it anyway…)

From the press release:

“It’s evident that gamers are not protecting themselves sufficiently and are unaware of the risk of playing online without protection – and as more and more titles require a constant Internet connection, that’s a real worry,” said Quinton Watts, VP of Marketing and Sales, ESET. “We’re in an age where cyber attacks can be detrimental to a person’s identity security and gamers, savvy as they may be, put themselves at risk far more than they need to.”