The Video Game Critic

Traditionally, consoles have some advantages to PCs, such as very little concern about malware. Is this still true in the online web browsing consoles with hard drives or other persistent memory age?

I have heard Android devices can get a virus, so I guess an Ouya or other microconsole could. Maybe a Steam Machine, if you consider it a console, which runs on a form of linux?

Considering malware has been made just because chickens gotta cross roads and bears get to the other side of mountains, are modern consoles still malware safe zones?

This is an excellent question. The more consoles become online dependent the more they open themselves up for malware. It's a wonder it hasn't happened yet. I guess the console companies are doing a pretty good job of keeping their operating systems locked down, but it's probably just a matter of time.

I tried using the web on my PS3 once, what a slow tedious task that was. Havent done it since. Given sony's stellar track record with cyber security, I have always wondered how safe the update servers were, and if anyone could back door them and plant malicious code in an update.

In the practical sense, probably not that frequently. In the context of possibility? Always. Computer systems, whether integrated or modular, can always be infected.

VideoGameCritic wrote:This is an excellent question. The more consoles become online dependent the more they open themselves up for malware. It's a wonder it hasn't happened yet. I guess the console companies are doing a pretty good job of keeping their operating systems locked down, but it's probably just a matter of time.

I agree, a very intriguing question. And I doubt that the console companies are the ones responsible for this. Even highly secure US government systems, including OPM (Office of Personnel Management) have been hacked into, and we are talking info like name, SSN, date of birth, financial issues, police issues, mental issues, family members info, etc. Scary stuff to be out there, and stuff that could possibly get one blackmailed.

I have two questions:

1. Are consoles more difficult to hack into than PC's?
2. What would be to gain? Other than possible credit card numbers used to purchase digital copies of games.

I can't find a confirmed virus for either the 360 or the PS3 on Google.

I'm sure it's possible but there are three reasons I suspect we don't see them.

1) Consoles connected to the internet are kept up date, whether you want it or not. Not so much with Windows PCs
2) Combined PS360 have about 160 million units. There are somewhere between 1 and 2 billion PCs worldwide.
3) Is anything of value really stored on the console? Isn't all the CC info stored on Sony/MS servers once you log in. Hacking those makes sense but the console itself, and I could be wrong, doesn't really have much worth stealing.

In the 80s at least, people wrote viruses for the challenge, the bragging rights, to show up people who said it couldn't be done, or just for malice sake with corrupting people's floppies. There really was no monetary gain for the person writing the virus then that I recall - was it Jumpin' Jack Flash where someone rounded down a bank's transactions to the dollar amount only and kept the difference for themselves.

I can imagine someone who just wants the bragging rights, or maybe is a fan of one console over another and just wants to monkeywrench the other team, or for the challenge of it.

[quote="scotland".... Jumpin' Jack Flash where someone rounded down a bank's transactions to the dollar amount only and kept the difference for themselves.
[/quote]

Wasn't that Office Space.

Yeah, you'd think someone would do just to prove they can, but so far doesn't look like. Maybe the consoles really are just locked down that tightly.

Trend Micro used to offer an anti-virus product for the PS3. I always thought it was geared more towards Japan. But we offered it via our catalog of support offerings while I worked at Digital River. If I recall correctly there were only about 2,000 subscriptions for it. But that was at least 3 years ago if not longer. I've no idea if they are still offering it or if anyone actually needs it.

scotland wrote:was it Jumpin' Jack Flash where someone rounded down a bank's transactions to the dollar amount only and kept the difference for themselves.

Shapur wrote:Wasn't that Office Space.

I don't know whether the movie titled "Jumpin' Jack Flash" had such an act or not, but I know the movie titled "Superman III" did years before "Office Space" ("Superman III" came to my mind the first time I read scotland's description of the act).