Following their launches in November, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have been attacked by hackers 34,000 times per day on average, according to a report from GameStop which cited a recent study from Kaspersky Lab. Kaspersky has been following the attempts to hack both new systems as well as other platforms, and has seen a significant spike since November when the consoles were launched.
Kaspersky also announced that it currently knows of roughly 4.6 million pieces of gaming-specific malware designed for gaming systems. Spain seems to be an especially hot target for console hackers, with nearly 140,000 attacks so far this year, roughly ten thousand more than second place Poland. Italy came in third in European communities, with just over 75,000 attacks.
The primary goal is to steal user names and passwords. The hackers then sell the information. These attacks could target individual users, but more often attack the companies themselves.
“We’ve just seen two of the biggest console launches ever, with the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One,” David Emm, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab said. “That means there will be more gamers for criminals to target, especially as the Sony and Microsoft machines increasingly use the Internet for a fuller gaming experience. And don’t forget the PC, still the most popular gaming platform and cyber crooks’ favorite target.”
