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Yes, this is official. The Big Brothers are going to hack you lock, stock and barrel, even when you are on the right side of the law and doing nothing more harmful than playing your favourite game. Well, for a change, they are not government agents, but millions of gaming-focused <keyword id="54201" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Malware">malware</keyword> (masterminded by humans, of course) that attack unsuspecting gamers. In fact, the year 2013 has witnessed a giant leap in the number of <keyword id="1980144" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cyber-attacks-aimed-at-gamers">cyber attacks aimed at gamers</keyword>, with <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> alone accounting for 2,07,245 attempts, says <keyword id="268308" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Kaspersky-Labs">Kaspersky Labs</keyword>, one of the world’s top 4 cyber security solutions providers. 
 Kaspersky has detected some 4.6 million pieces of malware, which accounted for more than 11.7 million attacks globally. On an average, users are hit by 34,000 attacks from <keyword id="1980145" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gaming-malware">gaming malware</keyword> daily. With the <keyword id="8206" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Christmas">Christmas</keyword> and the holiday season just around the corner, the malware attacks can rise even more as most of us love to play games as soon as we get some spare time. Considering that the <keyword id="1568713" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="PlayStation-4">PlayStation 4</keyword> and the <keyword id="1681394" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="xbox-one">Xbox One</keyword> are scheduled to be launched in India soon, the situation can get even more alarming. 
 “Gaming has an ever increasing fan base, which also means that the number of potential victims of <keyword id="96298" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="cyber-criminals">cyber criminals</keyword> is rising. Cyber criminals are putting a lot of effort into their attacks and we can see the upsurge in sophistication. Especially in times like Christmas, when a lot of new games are being released, gamers need to be attentive stay secure,” says Christian Funk, senior virus analyst of the lab’s global research &amp; analysis team. 
 
Who suffers most? The Russians, according to Kaspersky’s findings. Globally, Russian gamers are worst hit in 2013 as hackers have made 88,13,050 attempts on them. <keyword id="13486" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vietnam">Vietnam</keyword> records 5,03,947 attempts, <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="China">China</keyword> is third with 3,76,058 and India comes in fourth. Here’s a look at the global top 10: 
 
Russian Federation: 88,13,050 
Vietnam: 5,03,947 
China: 3,76,058 
India: 2,07,245 
<keyword id="6363645" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Spain">Spain</keyword>: 1,39,078 
<keyword id="47414" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Poland">Poland</keyword>: 1,27,583 
<keyword id="6372909" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Turkey">Turkey</keyword>: 1,21,164 
<keyword id="46274" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Taiwan">Taiwan</keyword>: 97,843 
<keyword id="3739" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Thailand">Thailand</keyword>: 92,914 
<keyword id="21474" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Italy">Italy</keyword>: 75,155 
 
How it is happening We all know the basics although the underlying framework happens to be extremely intricate. Simply put, the more time you spend on games, the more you will be exposed to different types of <keyword id="1980152" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Digital-attacks">digital attacks</keyword>. Very often, underground forums are full of cyber criminals who sell access to people’s <keyword id="640913" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="gaming-accounts">gaming accounts</keyword>. There are <keyword id="1980162" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Markets-for-usernames">markets for usernames</keyword> and passwords, and attacks on the <keyword id="1980164" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gaming-companies">gaming companies</keyword> themselves may result into your valuable data getting stolen. 
 Another popular tactic is to lure gamers with false promises. <keyword id="1980168" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Malware-pieces">Malware pieces</keyword> often target specific games, especially those which are hugely popular with millions of users. According to Kaspersky, games such as <keyword id="858537" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Minecraft">Minecraft</keyword> and <keyword id="293685" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Grand-Theft-Auto">Grand Theft Auto</keyword> V have witnessed this kind of hacking in 2013. For instance, a fake Minecraft tool built with Java promised to provide players with unprecedented powers such as banning other users, but it was actually stealing usernames and passwords in the background. Also, when Grand Theft Auto V landed this year, various sites promised free downloads. But when users tried to download it for free, only some malware got downloaded onto their systems. 
 <keyword id="6359049" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="phishing">Phishing</keyword> is also a common practice and tonnes of e-mail messages are sent out whenever a big launch happens. These messages typically ask for <keyword id="1980173" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sensitive-data">sensitive data</keyword> or money while promising great deals and discounts. 
 
Five tips to stay safe Although one can’t completely block out malicious attacks, there are ways to lessen <keyword id="1980175" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Hacking-risks">hacking risks</keyword>. Here are five must-follow tips to stay safe from now on. 
 
Don’t fall for offers that sound too good to be true. We all know there’s nothing called free lunch and those in the gaming business are here to make money, after all. Therefore, don’t fall for once-in-a-lifetime kind of offers and start clicking <keyword id="1980178" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Suspicious-links">suspicious links</keyword>. If an offer looks really genuine, double-check with the site/company/authorities before hitting a link or handing over any information. 
 
Only download titles from authorised sellers. If you are downloading illegal copies of games, you are not only breaking the law but also compromising your system. Cyber criminals often disguise malware as <keyword id="1980181" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Game-files">game files</keyword> to access your data. 
 
Use strong and <keyword id="1980182" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Unique-password">unique password</keyword> to keep each gaming account safe. That’s a precaution most of us take to protect different mail accounts. A <keyword id="1057006" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="strong-password">strong password</keyword> is difficult to hack but in case it is stolen, your other accounts will be safe as each of them has a different password and can’t be hacked en masse. Also, get a <keyword id="678415" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Password-manager">password manager</keyword> that offers smart protection. 
 
<keyword id="53321" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="anti-virus">Anti-virus</keyword> helps. 
Get the best one, if possible, and keep it updated round the clock. That’s one of the sure-fire ways to keep gaming malware at bay. Kaspersky says that you will need AV that goes beyond signature-based detection to look at file reputation, if you want to stop the smartest malware getting onto your system. 
 
Stay away from over-curious strangers. 
Once again, a must-follow rule from offline life. It is easy to be misled in the virtual world – so stay away from people who make friends too quickly and start asking personal details.

Did
You Think ‘Gaming’ Was Safe? Hackers Can Get You Any Day…

<ul><li>Adar Poonwalla, CEO of the biggest vaccine manufacturing company in the world — Serum Institute of India (SII) — believes India’s COVID-19 vaccine supply crunch will last at least another two months.</li><li>He claims that he is getting blamed for the shortage even though the impetus to be prepared for the second of COVID-19 infections is on the government.</li><li>This comes at a time when India’s daily increase in new cases of COVID-19 continues to remain above 300,000 per day and the vaccination drive is now open to nearly a billion people.</li></ul>Not only has the number of COVID-19 cases surging in the world’s second most populous country but there aren’t enough vaccines to go around, to keep the infection at bay. Not only are an estimated one billion people waiting for the vaccine in India, but the supply shortage is also unlikely to be resolved, any time soon. Chief executive of the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturing company, Serum Institute of India’s (SII) <keyword id="383467" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Adar-Poonawalla">Adar Poonawalla</keyword>, told the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/01784671-3834-49d8-9640-fc5d95f92eaf">Financial Times</a> (FT) that the severe vaccine shortage is likely to continue until the company can increase production. And it needs time at least till July to go from its current 60 to 70 million doses to 100 million doses a month. And even that may fall short of India’s total requirement since it has now opened up its vaccination drive to everyone above the age of 18 years — that’s an addition of 600 million people to the 400 million who were already eligible before May 1. As of May 3, only 154 million people have received the vaccine. Of that, only 27.5 million have gotten <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/covid-19-vaccine-india-needs-a-separate-queue-for-second-dose/articleshow/82304003.cms">the second dose</a>. <div type="image" title="vaccine line_edited" msid="82366910" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Local people waiting for vaccination as they break social distance rules at the NMC Gandhinagar Vaccine center at Nagpur, Maharashtra&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> That’s two more months of people lining up in queues outside vaccine centres, where social distancing is difficult to maintain, increasing the likelihood of them catching the disease while not even getting the dose because stocks ran out. Many are questioning why the Modi administration chose to increase the demand for vaccines at a time when supply was already insufficient and ramping up production would take time. Others are maligning vaccine manufacturers, like Poonawalla, for creating a ‘<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/covid-19-vaccine-price-sc-wants-the-indian-government-to-explain-about-covishield-and-covaxin-pricing/articleshow/82272913.cms">seller’s market</a>’ for the vaccine. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Who’s to blame for the vaccine supply crunch?" comment="subhead" text="Who’s to blame for the vaccine supply crunch?">Who’s to blame for the vaccine supply crunch?</cmsannotation> SII is in charge of manufacturing the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in India under the name Covishield. The government placed an order of 21 million vaccines at the end of February without any indication that more will be needed. In March, it asked for another 110 million doses as the number of cases in India started to surge. <div type="ExtQuote" text="“I’ve been victimised very unfairly and wrongly… there were no orders, we did not think we needed to make more than one billion doses a year.”" auname="Adar Poonawalla told the Financial Times"></div> According to Poonawalla, the impetus is on the government to prepare for such a crisis, not the company. “Everybody really felt that India had started to turn the tide on the pandemic,” he told FT. He said he is the one getting death threats from politicians and the common man alike. In another interview with the <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/adar-poonawalla-aggression-over-covid-vaccines-is-overwhelming-everyone-expects-to-get-theirs-first-bfqbgcm96?utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1619853834">Times of London</a>, Poonawalla claims he chose to stay back in London for a few extra days because the situation back at home was getting worse. “Just because you can’t supply the needs of X, Y or Z, you really want to guess what they are going to do,” he said. Meanwhile, experts believe that the disregard for COVID-19 appropriate behaviour at the massive <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/kumbh-mela-attended-by-3-5-million-pilgrims-as-india-becomes-the-second-most-covid-19-affected-country-in-the-world/slidelist/82044773.cms">Kumbh Mela</a>, which was attended by 3.5 million people, and the huge political rallies in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala should have been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/around-1700-people-test-positive-for-covid-19-in-hardiwar-kumbh-mela-from-april-10-14/articleshow/82083199.cms">addressed better</a> by the government. <div type="image" title="modi election crowd_edited" msid="82367018" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Massive crowd gathered in Kolkata to hear Narendra Modi addressing a public rally ahead of West Bengal state elections in April&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> India also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/india-has-authorized-the-sputnik-v-shot-russia-says-this-mean-its-covid-19-vaccine-is-now-approved-for-40-of-the-worlds-population-/articleshow/82047563.cms">authorised</a> the production of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in India and said it would do the same for vaccines approved by the UK, US, Europe, and Japan. However, local manufacturers who have partnered to produce the Russian vaccine say it will be months before they’re in a place to actually start rolling Sputnik V off the lines. One of the reasons being how fast the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/india-will-receive-the-first-batch-of-russia-covid-19-vaccine-sputnik-by-may-1/articleshow/82269061.cms">technology transfer</a> — the instructions on how to actually make the vaccine — occurs. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="India pumped up demand when there was already a vaccine shortage" comment="subhead" text="India pumped up demand when there was already a vaccine shortage">India pumped up demand when there was already a vaccine shortage</cmsannotation> Registrations for the vaccine opened up to those between the ages of 18 to 45 years on April 28. After an initial delay from midnight to 4:00 pm, the CoWIN servers — one of the portals used for vaccine registrations — crashed due to the sheer number of people <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/cowin-website-is-back-up-after-an-early-crash-finding-a-vaccination-slot-may-still-be-difficult/articleshow/82291583.cms">logging in</a>. The few lucky individuals who were able to get past the hurdle of registering themselves found only disappointment on the other side, as actual appointments were still restricted to those above the age of 45 years. Over the course of the next three days, many states put their hands up to say that they will be unable to open up slots for those between 18 to 45 years due to the shortage of vaccines — priority will be given to those waiting for their second dose. On Saturday, May 1, India crossed the threshold of 400,000 new cases of COVID-19 within a span of 24 hours. That was, ironically, the same day that India kicked off its vaccination drive for people between the ages of 18 to 45 years old. Despite the assumption that India was out of the woods when it came to the COVID-19 pandemic back in January, the second wave of infections is now hitting India harder than any other. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/tata-power-says-it-has-no-such-decision-on-an-ipo-for-its-renewable-energy-business/articleshow/82365533.cms">Tata Power says it has ‘no such decision’ on an IPO for its renewable energy business</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/amid-covid-19-vaccine-shortage-indian-government-promises-to-provide-56-lakh-doses-to-states-and-uts-in-three-days/articleshow/82354079.cms">Amid COVID-19 vaccine shortage, Indian government promises to provide 56 lakh doses to states and UTs in three days</a>

SII’s Adar Poonawalla estimates two more months of COVID-19 vaccine shortage in India — and the blame game is heating up

<ul><li>The <keyword id="571991" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nirav-Modi">Nirav Modi</keyword> <keyword id="41357" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Scam">scam</keyword> is technology vs human ingenuity. </li><li>It's not a cybercrime, but it's certainly a bank heist.</li><li>Bankers and Modi's staff misused the <keyword id="6360068" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="swift">SWIFT</keyword> system to build a $1.6 billion scam.</li></ul> Technology is only as strong as the humans using it. That pretty much sums up the Nirav Modi scam that came to light last week. The parties involved misused the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) money transfer system, and their personal positions within <keyword id="62034" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Punjab-National-Bank">Punjab National Bank</keyword> to build a $1.6 billion (or more) scam. At its core, the Nirav Modi scam is a hack, though it can't really be labeled as cybercrime. <keyword id="6242884" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="gokulnath-shetty">Gokulnath Shetty</keyword>, deputy branch manager at a <keyword id="47268" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="PNB">PNB</keyword> branch in South Mumbai, had the passwords required to log into the SWIFT system. That allowed him to effectively game the system in favour of Modi's firms. But what is SWIFT? And how is a password enough to send $ 1.6 billion down the drain? The anatomy of a bank heist When money is transferred overseas, banks inform the same to the country's treasury. The treasury then informs another country's treasury, which in turn tells the bank in that other country to transfer the funds. But, as powerful as the treasury is, it cannot do so without a branch manager's consent. The branch manager in question here is the bank branch that originally got the transfer request. This consent (from the bank's branch manager) is issued through SWIFT messages. You could call it the world's most powerful messaging system. SWIFT is an inter-bank messaging system that doesn't transfer any money but informs banks around the world that loans or fund transfers have been authorised. SWIFT messages are sent in set formats and hold information relevant to a particular transfer. In the Nirav Modi scam, the Letters of Understanding (LoU) in question were issued through SWIFT. Unlike the $81 million Bangladesh Bank hack of 2016, there was no malware involved in this case. The malware here were humans, armed with passwords. A CBI source told <a href="https://thewire.in/225297/nirav-modis-team-given-unauthorised-access-pnb-systems-cbi-sources/" data-type="tilCustomLink">The Wire</a> that - "Modi's staff were logging into the SWIFT system using passwords of PNB officials, including Shetty, in the capacity of verifier/authoriser and enabling the fraudulent SWIFT messages." What this means is that the accused were issuing and approving the consent of their own accord. Core Banking System (CBS) But there's a failsafe for that as well. Consent issued via SWIFT are eventually supposed to tie in with a bank's core system. This is the technology allowing various bank branches to inter-operate. The Core Banking System and the SWIFT system are separate systems, requiring manual input for SWIFT messages into the CBS. This is where PNB's oversight comes into the picture. A LoU issued via the SWIFT system is supposed to be manually entered into the CBS at some point. Somehow, no one did that, and no one asked either. The result? $ 1.6 billion or more in the hands of diamond sellers. (Image courtesy: PTI)

Nirav Modi Scam: How to game an age-old banking system for $1.6 billion

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You Searched For "Authorised games sellers" and got 3 results

Did You Think ‘Gaming’ Was Safe? Hackers Can Get You Any Day…

Sanghamitra Mandal

SII’s Adar Poonawalla estimates two more months of COVID-19 vaccine shortage in India — and the blame game is heating up

Prabhjote Gill

Nirav Modi Scam: How to game an age-old banking system for $1.6 billion

Prasid Banerjee

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