{"id":202899,"date":"2022-09-07T11:26:36","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T09:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=202899"},"modified":"2025-07-01T20:28:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:28:32","slug":"malware-in-minecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/malware-in-minecraft\/","title":{"rendered":"Hackers love hiding malware in Minecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Minecraft is beloved by young and old gamers alike. It offers an expansive and open-source gaming universe for players to shape, craft, and explore. Unfortunately, however, this popularity has also attracted a fair amount of unwanted attention for the game with cybercriminals increasingly taking to the online gaming world to attempt to catch out unsuspecting gamers. In fact, <strong>Minecraft is now the most attacked game by cybercriminals<\/strong>. Let\u2019s dig a little deeper.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"sc-card-program\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-program__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__img\" alt=\"Minecraft\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_app-logo-xl,f_auto\/p\/b276c62c-96bf-11e6-ad7b-00163ec9f5fa\/2176013111\/minecraft-logo.png\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-title\">\r\n        <span class=\"sc-card-program__title\">Minecraft<\/span>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-program__button sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/minecraft.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Download Now<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-rating\">\r\n        <svg class=\"rating-score__content\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.1\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 50 50\" enable-background=\"new 0 0 50 50\" xml:space=\"preserve\"><path class=\"rating-score__background rating-score--good\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><path class=\"rating-score__value rating-score__value--0\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-dashoffset=\"0\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><text class=\"rating-score__number\" content=\"\" text-anchor=\"middle\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 1 25 31.0837)\" data-auto=\"app-user-score\"><\/text><\/svg>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <span class=\"sc-card-program__description\"><\/span>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__bigpic\" src=\"\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\">\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-program__link track-link sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/minecraft.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Security researchers at Kaspersky have released <a href=\"https:\/\/securelist.com\/gaming-related-cyberthreats-2021-2022\/107346\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a report<\/a> into malware attacks on video games and Minecraft sits at the top of the list. <strong>It is the most popular game to target for malicious actors and cybercriminals.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Kaspersky report, malicious files relating to the block-based crafting and open-world adventure game a<strong>ccounted for about 25% of game-specific targeted malware<\/strong>. Second in this unfortunate league table was FIFA, which saw about 11% of all game-specific attacks with Roblox, Far Cry, and Call of Duty not far behind on 9.5%, 9.4%, and 9% respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kaspersky outlined the types of threats included in these type of attack that target gamers as such:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cDownloaders (88.56%) top the list of malicious and unwanted software being spread using the names of popular games: this type of unsolicited software might not be dangerous in and of itself, but it can be used for loading other threats onto devices. Adware (4.19%) comes second: this type of software displays unwanted (and sometimes irritating) pop-up ads which can appear on a user\u2019s computer or mobile device.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trojans represent the third most common form of malware showing up in these game-specific attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>These games are targeted for their massive user bases<\/strong> that often run into the hundreds of millions of active players a month. With these games having active stores, these massive user bases <strong>represent huge potential pools of cash for the scammers to try and dip into<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This story just goes to show that you need to be vigilant even when you think you are in comfortable surroundings when online, such as while playing your favorite game. To help keep yourself safe when online, we recommend you check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/how-to-detect-fakescam-emails-and-avoid-phishing-attacks-hi-res-version\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anti-phishing visual guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Image via: F<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/postapocalyptic\/6730900775\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lickr<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minecraft is beloved by young and old gamers alike. It offers an expansive and open-source gaming universe for players to shape, craft, and explore. Unfortunately, however, this popularity has also attracted a fair amount of unwanted attention for the game with cybercriminals increasingly taking to the online gaming world to attempt to catch out unsuspecting &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/malware-in-minecraft\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Hackers love hiding malware in Minecraft&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":202901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[2328],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-202899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionminecraft"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323248,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202899\/revisions\/323248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202899"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=202899"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=202899"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=202899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}