Main Online Gaming Security Threats and Ways to Avoid Them

Previously, online games were considered for kids and teenagers only. But time changes rapidly, and online gaming has become a really popular activity for people of all ages. We bet you play at least one online game. You probably utilize a gaming console, a PC, or your smartphone to enjoy playing your favorite game in the evening, at the weekends, during your commuting, etc.

But the bigger the online development games have, the more threats begin to appear. One of them is hackers and cybercriminals. While your online game can take you into an imaginary world, the real world still has threats. Therefore, read this article till the end in order to understand what threats can lie in wait for you in the gaming sphere and ways to secure yourself from them.

Your Gaming Account Matters for Hackers

Many players may think: who does want to steal my gaming account? What benefits can hackers get from getting access to my gaming account? You may be surprised, but it does not matter if you play a chargeless or paid game. Cybercriminals will gain from your account anyway. It is not complicated to hack gaming accounts for the simple reason that players do not take special attention to elementary cybersecurity precautionary measures. As soon as hackers get access to your gaming account, they will receive the following possibilities:

• Read your chats with other players and listen to conversations with them;
• Utilize your login details in order to hack your other accounts (for instance, social media);
• Utilize your data to conduct phishing attacks and in conclusion get more information from you;
• Share your data on the dark web;
• Utilize your payment details to buy virtual currencies (after that attackers can send them in to their accounts and then resell them on the dark web);
• Utilize your account for money laundering.

Next, let us consider how hackers and cybercriminals can hack your account.

Poor Passwords

Those game players who consider that their accounts will never be targets of hackers are the first victims of cybercriminals. Such players do not create strong and reliable passwords for their accounts. Maybe they do not have enough knowledge of cybersecurity, or maybe they simply do not want to waste their time coming up with strong passwords. Making a weak password is the biggest mistake every user can make during the creation of gaming accounts. If you do not want your gaming account to appear in the wrong hands, you should allocate your free time and update your passwords.

Hackers will easily break your password if it consists of just one word or if you utilize common passwords (for example, “password1234”). Cybercriminals possess big databases of widespread passwords. These databases are useful for them when they intend to break your password. User name or electronic mail is what cybercriminals should have to conduct this attack. Hackers will then simply utilize a special bot that will attempt all passwords on the database. This attack will lead to success, or a bot will simply go through the whole list, and hackers will be left with nothing. But if you use a common password, the attack will probably be successful.

Reason Is in Data Leak

Data leaks are another widespread threat for gamers. But it is a goldmine for cybercriminals. Unfortunately, you can do nothing with this in order to protect yourself. Everything hinges on the cybersecurity of the organization that keeps your data. If they store paroles unencrypted, these passwords will probably appear in the wrong hands of cybercriminals.

Credential Stuffing Attacks

Many users do not want to clog their heads with unnecessary information. Usually, this info involves different passwords for multiple accounts. In order not to come up with different passwords, game players create only one password (as you may understand, this password is weak) and reuse it on multiple accounts. Such users are defenseless in front of credential stuffing attacks. If login information was breached or a cybercriminal hacked one of your accounts, this cybercriminal will possibly attempt to reuse the identical login information on your other accounts. For instance, if you possess one password for both your gaming and bank accounts, you will possibly have big problems.

Phishing and Cyberstalking

Phishing is a form of attack that makes you guilty in this situation. To become a victim of this attack, you should simply click on malicious or fake links. You can be tricked by free offers and special discounts for players. Unfortunately, many of these links are part of hackers’ plans in order to reach your account.

Cyberstalking can make your both online and offline life worse. Hackers can simply determine your IP address and, therefore, your location. After that, hackers will have the possibility to easily establish your personality and start to intimidate you on gaming platforms in order to get admittance to your sensitive data. Moreover, they can even bully you in real life because they presumably know where you live.

Ways for Protecting your Gaming Account

Though there are many threats to your gaming account, many effective methods of protection exist. There is no need to be an IT specialist to secure your account. You should simply follow not complicated precautionary measures. In order to make the lives of cybercriminals more difficult, you should do as follows:

• Create strong passwords. Allocate some time on thinking of reliable passwords. They should be unique. You can utilize automatic password generators online. Do not forget to note these passwords in order not to fail in logging in.
• Turn on two-factor authentication. This method is the most effective concerning the protection of your accounts. It will be more complicated for cybercriminals to hack your accounts. They will need to get access to your phone in order to get the second verification code.
• Utilize antivirus and do not forget to update it as often as possible. A good antivirus will assist in identifying common viruses before they damage your device.
• Learn more about phishing techniques. This will give you the possibility to recognize them instantly and do not fall for this trick.
• Learn more about cyberstalking. Find out what you should do immediately if you come to harm.
• Utilize VPN for gaming. For instance, VeePN is a service that will encode online traffic and will conceal an IP address from cybercriminals.

We can conclude that threats can wait for you even while you simply play your favorite online game. In order to fully enjoy and immerse yourself in the game, you should take care of your cybersecurity first. Just follow simple ways how to avoid attacks from hackers mentioned before.