The Olympics is considering esports and the cyberthreat that comes with it

The video games industry has long since outgrown the film industry.

Statista estimates that the video game industry will even reach $455bn in revenue by 2024.

We register billions of players, thousands of esports teams, multimillion-dollar tournament prizes. And where there's money, there are cybercriminals.

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The gaming industry has plenty of experience with ransomware attacks.

For example, Capcom, creator of the legendary Street Fighter, Mega Man, Resident Evil and Devil May Cry franchises, has been attacked.

CD PROJEKT RED, the company behind hits such as The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, was also severely affected by a serious ransomware attack. Electronic Arts, one of the world's largest gaming companies, was also attacked and had its data and source code stolen.

Even the closely guarded and long-awaited hit GTA VI did not escape and the creators were blackmailed by a 17-year-old hacker who had earlier attacked Uber.

Cost of attack

The costs associated with a successful attack can be enormous.

The ransom in such ransomware attacks can run into millions of dollars, and the loss of trust and reputational damage among players and partners can have an even more severe impact.

At the same time, if information is leaked, organisations must also pay corresponding fines for non-compliance with security regulations. Many companies can then run into existential problems.

"Increasingly, we're also seeing attacks aimed directly at esports. Big gaming events are watched by thousands of people right in the halls and millions of people around the world,” says Shayimamba Conco at cybersecurity company Check Point Software Technologies.

Popular gaming platforms have millions of players, so any attack can be very painful.

“Trust is crucial in this industry because players and fans are very sensitive to any kind of manipulation and disruption, so when matches have to be rescheduled, played in private or any other problems occur, a shadow of doubt falls over the event and the value of the event plummets.”

“And there is no need for some sophisticated threat or ransomware attack either, disrupting the tournament or broadcast and blackmailing teams and organisers can unfortunately be much easier and more effective.”

Non-tech savvy threats

“Attackers don't even have to be very tech-savvy; powerful botnets can be rented on the darknet for a few hundred dollars,” says Conco.

“And hacking attacks can also be part of a competitive struggle. Between teams and even between popular tournaments.”

He offered some examples of how discrediting competitors could play a key role in the battle for important partners and sponsors or could result in the exclusion of a competing team from a tournament or withdrawal of known teams from untrustworthy and problematic tournaments.

Also, traditionally, the most common motivation for hackers was financial gain.

But attacks could also be motivated by personal or political reasons, seeking revenge or to make a particular agenda visible.

For some hackers, attacking a major tournament was just a matter of prestige and challenge.

Multiple forms of attacks

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks are one of the most common threats in esports.

The aim is to overload servers, leading to outages and complications with gameplay or streaming.

This year, for example, the well-known team T1 and the LoL Champions Korea (LCK) tournament were attacked.

The tournament in which T1 was participating even had to be suspended, with matches being postponed and not played publicly, which of course entails huge losses as sponsors and spectators expect the event to run smoothly.

In addition, the T1 team stated that they could not even prepare properly for the tournament due to DDoS attacks.

Hackers are also targeting the accounts of professional players to gain access to sensitive information.

Cyberattacks are therefore not only targeting the tournaments themselves, but also individual players.

Tournament integrity

“Cyber security is a key factor for the success and integrity of esports tournaments,” concluded Conco.

“With the increasing number of attacks, it is imperative that tournament organisers, teams and players adopt comprehensive security measures and focus on prevention.”

“Only with adequate cyber protection can esports continue to grow and move proudly and fearlessly towards the Olympic competition, which will surely be a big draw for cybercriminals.”