作者：Matthew Cook

随着新年的到来，全世界都在期待着这个2017，但同时我们也可以回顾过去对我们产业产生重要影响的一些事件并从中获得学习。

2016年发生了一些让人郁闷的事，特别是那些与网络安全相关的事。不管是《Pokemon Go》在发行前两天遭遇黑客还是FBI揭发有人诈骗艺电百万游戏货币，我们都会发现网络攻击已经且将持续影响着电子游戏开发者，发行商以及玩家们。

回顾过去一年，主要有3大网络安全趋势影响着电子游戏产业，并且在新的一年里它们的影响力也丝毫不会变小：

Cybersecurity(from modulo)

1.提高意识。3年前当我们创建Panopticon Labs时，Kaspersky Labs是唯一一家正视了电子游戏产业所面对的网络威胁的组织。而现在这已经不再是什么新鲜事了，因为电子游戏的网络攻击频率不断提高且造成了财政和声誉上的一些危害。实际上，去年10月Trend Micro便发布了一份报告详细描述了因为灰市中的在线电子游戏货币与道具的流通而导致电子游戏产业遭遇了越来越多威胁。

2.产业和媒体开始发现电子游戏产业所面对价值损失。不管是与游戏发行商交谈还是来自产业的研究，我们都发现电子游戏发行商因为游戏内部的欺诈与一些侮辱性活动而损失了最多40%的微交易收益。除此之外游戏内部欺诈还会通过很多方式吞噬电子游戏利润，包括减少广告收益，提高人员成本，增加服务器和法务费用等等。

3.政府/法律的介入。一旦涉及真钱的损失以及真人被害，很快地政府便会出面去控制这个产业并保护这里的消费者们。但我们希望产业能够尽快创造自己的标准去避免政府的干涉。

总之，电子游戏产业正逐渐意识到我们在2013年创建Panopticon Labs时所警示发行商们的问题。而作为第一家游戏网络安全公司去保护在线电子游戏发行商免受游戏内部网络攻击所造成的财政和声誉威胁，我们将不断努力去缓解今天以及未来发行商们所面对的这些问题。但为了实现这一目标，不管是执行者还是运营者都必须合作起来并意识到他们现在所面对的网络诈骗的严重性，并制定真实有效的计划去缓解这些问题对于游戏以及虚拟世界的影响。我知道这并不是简单的任务，没有人会喜欢谈论这样的问题，但在我们当前的盈利环境中，在线游戏的经济利益通常都是取决于评论，Let’s Play视频以及不断回到虚拟世界中的玩家所创造的微交易。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

2016: The Year the Video Game Industry (Finally) Realized Its Cybersecurity Problem.

by Matthew Cook

As the year comes to a close and the world looks forward to 2017, it’s important to look back on significant events that have made an impact on our industry, and to learn from them.

We’ve seen some troubling events happen in 2016, particularly as it relates to cybersecurity. From Pokémon Go getting hacked within the first two days of its release, to the FBI indicting scammers who swindled Electronic Arts (EA) for millions in in-game currency, there have been plenty of cyber attacks that have, and will continue to, affect video game developers, publishers, and players.

Reflecting on the past year, there are three major cybersecurity trends that have emerged that had an enourmous impact on the video game industry in 2016, and which will doubtless continue to do so in the upcoming year:

1.Increasing awareness. When we started Panopticon Labs three years ago, Kaspersky Labs was the only organization talking about the cyber threats faced by the video game industry. Now, it is all over the news, as cyber attacks on video games increase in frequency and their resulting financial and reputational damages are realized. In fact, Trend Micro released a report in October detailing the increasing threats to the video game industry through the use of the gray market for online video game currency and items.

2.The industry and media are starting to assign real money value to the losses that the industry is facing. From talking to video game publishers and through our own industry research, we have found that video game publishers lose up to 40% of their in-game micro-transaction revenue due to fraudulent and abusive activity inside of their games. However, there are many ways in-game fraud can erode video game profits – from decreased ad revenue, to increased staff costs, to server and legal fees.

3.Government/legal involvement. Real money is being lost and real people are being hurt. Sooner or later, the government is going to regulate the industry in relation to fraud and protecting their customers. We are encouraging the industry to develop its own standards to avoid government involvement as much as possible.

In short, it appears that the video game industry is finally realizing what we’ve been warning publishers about since we founded Panopticon Labs in 2013. As the first in-game cybersecurity company to protect online video game publishers from the financial and reputational damage of in-game cyber attacks, we’re uniquely positioned to help mitigate the threats facing publishers today and in the future, But for this to happen, executives and operations-level folks must come together, acknowledge the true size and scope of the challenges in their current fraud and risk environment, and put a pragmatic plan in place designed to neutralize bad actors’ corrosive affect on the games, and the virtual worlds, we love. I know it’s not an easy task, and nobody likes talking about these issues, but in our current monetization enviromnent, where an online game’s financial success often depends on reviews, Let’s Play videos, and continued mictotransaction sales made by players who return to compelling virtual worlds again and again, they must be addressed.（source：gamasutra）