The Hindu Business Line : <I>Game enough for online attacks? </I>

The spirit of "Game on" may have caught up with Indians, but anti-virus firms in the country do not share the excitement. They warn of a wave of threats and possible doorways for viruses to enter your home network.

Gamers in the county are rejoicing as Microsoft's Xbox 360 was launched this Diwali, and Sony's PlayStation 3 is expected to be available in India in March 2007. Security in these game boxes has not been given a thought, but Mr Umang Bedi, Enterprise Sales Manager, of anti-virus firm Symantec warns, "this will be the next wave" that will break upon Indians.

Because it is bracketed as a toy, most users do not think about gaming consoles as a computer.

By bringing such a device into your home intranet, you have added a gateway for viruses.

Also, many of these games are pirated DVDs, which could contain viruses, said Capt Raghu Raman, CEO, CISA, Mahindra Special Services Group.

Home LAN

At most homes, the gaming device is connected over a home local area network (LAN), which connects to a desktop, and more often than not, an office laptop.

So the virus now has access to your company's network - and this is when it becomes a serious threat.

So if you were looking forward to that multiplayer game on your PlayStation 3, just remember that the conduit you share with other players could be used to issue denial of service attacks.

Another security firm Fortinet, however, assures that game viruses will not be an issue in near future.

"The Indian bandwidth is not yet good enough for the gaming community. Once gamers start getting online, then we could expect to see such threats," said Mr Vishak Raman, Country Manager, Fortinet India.

So for those who already spend their nights logged on and gaming, take the advice of security firms: a firewall is a "basic necessity".

PC users could also ensure that they buy only original DVDs to protect their costly gaming console.

After all, it's a matter of protecting your investment as the devices are priced from Rs 24,000 to Rs 50,000.

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