Malware found in children's gaming web sites

Czech security vendor Avast Software is warning users to be on their guard after spotting increasing numbers of children's gaming sites, which have been infected with malware.

The firm said that over the past 30 days it has observed more than 60 sites featuring "game" or "arcade" in the URL which contain malware.

The most visited site was cutearcade.com, which has managed to infect more than 12,600 users as of 10 January with a malicious Trojan that redirects visitors to linuxstabs.com, a known distribution point for malware, according to Avast.

"Games like these require clicking and children don't think much about what they are clicking on," said Ondrej Vlcek, chief technology officer of Avast.

"This makes them – or their parents' computer – quite susceptible to malware. If there is something dangerous, a child will find it. But, moving between sites is normal behaviour for most people, regardless of age."

According to the firm, many of the sites in question appear legitimate, but have been infected by malware writers hoping to score a 'drive-by-download' attack, while others may have been specially crafted to distribute malware.

The discovery can be seen as yet another attempt by cyber criminals to expand the potential distribution channels for their malware.

Email borne malware in the form of malicious attachments, however, is still believed to be the most common route of infection.