Ask HN: Is it possible to get hacked while playing an online PC video game? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is it possible to get hacked while playing an online PC video game?

My friend wants to play games like Modern Warfare 2 on the family PC but his parents won't let him. His dad is really skeptical. He thinks that if his son plays an online video game, the other players could be able with some software to hack the computer. Clearly, this is prejudice. A player can only get his IP address, but my friend got Windows 7 so the firewall should prevent any attacks.

Anyways, his dad won't be convinced unless it's written clearly by a reliable source that there's no danger.

So folks, please explain whether his dad is right or wrong of thinking other people could hack his computer while his son plays Modern Warface 2.

Thanks

View on HN

I don't see the point of answering this, given that I am just a random person on the Internet and thus not a reliable source. Also, I don't think you can address irrational concerns with reason.

As for whether popular games have remotely exploitable vulnerabilities (such as, oh, a buffer overflow in custom map loading), I doubt that it's any more dangerous than running a Web browser.

It's just that his parent don't trust what I say. I want a few tech savvy guys to say what they think.

As you said, it's not any more dangerous than running a Web browser. The thing is: his father is convinced that playing a PC game is much more dangerous though he has no problem with games that plays in a web browser. I just want a bunch of people to support me saying playing a PC game is not more dangerous than running a Web browser.

You are just as vulnerable playing an online game as you are browsing the internet.

The bottom line is, you are using applications that may or may not have vulnerabilities in them, which may or may not be caught by antivirus, firewalls and other sorts of preventative measures.

The only difference is that you stand a greater risk of being targeted while playing/chatting online than when you are simply browsing the web; but the bottom line is, if you (not you, but a communal, global style "you") are paranoid about something happening to your computer while online, simply remove the computer from the internet - that's the most secure way of keeping your computer hack free.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com