If you are a gamer, or parent of a gamer, pay attention. When you are gaming, if you are in the habit of disabling your security software because you think it speeds up the game, you have put yourself and your computer's data at serious risk. As we've said before, cybercriminals have figured out how to convert virtual cash in the gaming world to real world money via online exchanges such as IGE. And when you reduce your protection level while gaming, you risk having spyware and keystroke logging software installed on your computer, allowing the criminals to get your gaming cash and other private information.
Last week, Microsoft issued a clean-up tool as part of their June security updates. If you have automated Windows Updating turned on, you've already had this protection dropped onto your computer. If you don't have it on or you schedule it manually, set it up to run now. Already, Microsoft's tool has removed gaming password malware off of 2 million computers, with one particular piece of code accounting for 700,000 infections on the first day alone. Most of the malware targets gamers in China with other big markets in
Taiwan, Spain, US and Korea. You can read more about this news at Computerworld.