14 DAY TRIAL // Bitdefender experts warn users to pay closer attention to what their young ones access on the internet as in many cases the harmless looking games hide dangerous pieces of malware that could compromise the entire information from a device.
According to Catalin Cosoi, the head of Online Threat Labs at Bitdefender, “Some of these dangerous games are easily identified by adults – who suspect that something is abnormal about them when they require permission to install various programs in the computer or they redirect to other websites.”
“Thus, attackers choose targets that are easier to dupe. Furthermore, a 4-year-old doesn't understand the concept of online vulnerability,” he added.
The colorful images and playful sounds might look innocent, but in some cases they hide backdoor applications that could surrender the control over the machine to hacker masterminds that are out to get your sensitive information.
The phenomenon is expected to take off in the next period, as recent studies show that in the USA and in the UK more than 40% of children are highly active in social networking environments. More disturbing is the fact that 24% of parents don't monitor the internet activity of their youth.
Malware containing Flash applications seem to be among the most unsafe as in many cases they look like regular games. When they're executed, redirects are made, which lead kids to insecure locations that host all sorts of malicious elements.
Legitimate sites can also be overtaken by cybercriminals and infested with all sorts of malevolent code that could easily hand over the controls to the system to a third party.
Parents are advised to deploy parental control applications that can prevent a child from accessing dangerous or illegal content on the web. Also, it is recommended that children operate computers from a user account with limited permissions. Finally, make sure your security software is functioning properly and it's up to date.
Note. The quotes found in the article were translated from Romanian. The original piece can be found here.