21st March, 2017

As the online gaming industry continues to expand, hackers are looking for ways to breach into the players accounts to gain access to their personal and financial details. Whether you are a regular player or occasionally spend some time on an online game, you are making yourself susceptible to many potential attacks that can jeopardize your personal identity as well as financial privacy.

Given below are some of the common security risks associated with online gaming and how you can stay protected against them:

Phishing

Phishing is a scamming technique that involves the use of imitation websites or fake URLs. The hackers send out emails to the online gamers with an aim to defraud them and gain access to their account login credentials or credit card details. The users may be required to click on a link to validate the online gaming account or change their password. The information entered is directly transmitted to the hackers.

To protect against phishing attacks, make sure you do not click on a link in an email. Instead, manually type in the gaming website’s URL to log in to your account and update your account settings.

Character/Inventory Theft

In this type of attack, the cyber criminals may attempt to cheat the players with in-game resources, paid account upgrades or game characters. The stronger your game characters are, higher will be your chances of being targeted by the hackers. They may offer lucrative in-app purchases or character upgrades to extract your credit card details.

Playing cautiously is important to avoid being a victim of such attacks. Set up two factor authentication and create a strong password to prevent the hackers from breaching your gaming account.

Malicious File Downloads

Online gaming involves several file downloads. To capitalize on this, the hackers may attempt to infect the player’s computer system with malware. They may install fake game updates, anti-cheats, in-game interface tweaks, utility files etc. that contain a malicious code. Once executed, the malware acts as a keylogger as well as records your user name, password, credit card numbers and other sensitive information.

In order to stay safe, you should install an anti-virus software on your device. Schedule a daily scan to identify and remove any keylogger tools or malware files. Also, keep your device updated with the most recent patches and OS versions released by genuine vendors.

For more tips on online gaming security, you can contact Centex Technologies at (855) 375 – 9654.