Malware spreads via children’s gaming websites

Hackers are increasingly targeting child focused gaming websites, according to a leading anti-virus firm. Anti virus company says it detected malware threats at more than 50 sites that contained “game” or “arcade” in their title. These pages tried to download Javascript infections, redirectors and potentially unwanted software.

“These are sites with mini-games, including flash applications and simple online apps – one example is software that allows girls to dress and change the clothes of characters”, the firm’s chief technical officer, told.

Cutearcade.com – the most visited site affected with more than 12.500 infection reports. Trojan from the site had redirected users to linuxstabs.com, a known distribution point for malware. Cutearcade.com’s owner did not respond to requests for comment.Anti virus company thinks most of the sites affected are businesses, that have fallen victim to hackers and are not created to spread malware. They bases this judgement on the fact that affected pages had been online for long time before anti virus software began detecting threats.

Children’s computers are more vulnerable to attacks because they are usually in worse shape. The owners are less likely to have the latest security measures installed.  The child may also be less suspicious that something wrong is happening. If a spam-bot infects the computer and keeps sending out spam emails for a long time a young child might not notice it going on.This is an issue that parents should discuss with their children, and also highlights the need for them to ensure that they regularly update the anti-virus and other security software on their children’s computers.