Few forms of entertainment are as profoundly impactful as online gaming can be. These shared digital experiences let perfect strangers tackle epic adventures, duel elite players from across the globe, or forge life-long relationships. However, online gaming isn’t without risk.
This article tackles how to identify and deal with the most common cybersecurity risks plaguing your beloved game worlds. See what threats you face and how to eliminate them to level up your online gaming experience.
Learn How to Spot Phishing Emails
Phishing has been around forever, yet millions of gamers of all ages continue to fall for it. Cybercrooks are getting craftier in designing them, too. You used to get emails that looked like they came from a game’s developer or your launcher, claiming you must reset your password due to a suspicious login attempt.
Now, they’re also using FOMO and other tactics to get people to visit the malicious sites they advertise. They’ll offer free skins for Fortnite, Roblox, Valorant, and other games popular with younger players and ask you to sign in with your real gaming account on their sketchy website. The real prize? Your account gets hacked and stripped of all your hard-won loot.
Such phishing emails aren’t hard to spot. Start by checking the header and making sure they come from a legitimate email. Gaming companies already have your account details, and you can always reset your password or claim real rewards through official means. If in doubt, check what your game’s community has to say.
Secure Your Accounts
Countless hours of grinding the ladder, limited-time achievements and gear, and your signature gamer tag are all tied to your account. It makes sense that securing it should be a top priority. Gaming companies usually meet you halfway by offering two-factor authentication, which you should ALWAYS enable.
However, you’re responsible for the account’s password, and that’s where problems happen. Use a password that’s simple to remember, and it becomes trivial to crack. A long and complicated password you used elsewhere isn’t a good defense, either.
Other companies may not be diligent about cybersecurity and can fall prey to a data breach. Crooks use the information they harvest to launch credential-stuffing attacks. Since popular online games attract millions of players, your account becomes a likely target.
It’s best to leave password security up to a trusted vault for passwords. With password managers, you can instantly generate unique, secure logins for any account and have to remember a single master password. Plus, you can set up 2FA through the manager for accounts that don’t come with it, preventing leaked credentials from stealing those accounts.
Beware of Scammers
Scams are nothing new in online gaming, but lately, they’ve become even more dangerous. Scammers from all over the world can now use ChatGPT to make up sob stories or offer fantastic trades without being suspicious. Younger gamers are particularly vulnerable since their reasoning skills and lack of real-world experience make them ideal targets.
Be wary of messages from strangers hoping to connect through the game if you’ve had no prior interaction with them, especially if they offer trades or services too good to be true. Keep up with scam-related news through gaming communities and help younger players avoid such traps, too.
Play Only on Secure Networks
Laptops let you continue the fight away from home, but there’s a catch. Connecting to a café’s Wi-Fi to squeeze a few rounds of CS2 in when you’re on a break can result in stolen login credentials, passwords, and even payment data if a hacker is monitoring the connection and your activities.
Your smartphone’s mobile internet is much more secure, and you can connect to it through tethering. Great when you’re out with friends but far too expensive if you’re abroad due to high roaming charges. Luckily, you can use an eSIM service to ditch hefty roaming fees.
Find the most suitable provider from trustworthy websites like esimgeek, get the most stable, affordable local carriers, and use the tether as efficiently as you would at home.
Vet Your Mods
Mods give games you’ve grown bored with a new lease on life. They add new maps, modes, or abilities to make things fun again. Most are legit, and creators put in a lot of work to make them fun. However, mods — and especially cheating software — are the perfect means of spreading malware.
Be very careful where you get your mods from. It’s best to use official means like your launcher’s workshop. While an unofficial mod might be popular and fine, the website that hosts it could have fake ads or ask you to download a mod installer infected with malware.
Of course, the mods themselves can also harbor malware, corrupt your game files, and cause all sorts of trouble.
Conclusion
It’s easy to lose oneself in heated team matches or embark on quests with friends and completely neglect one’s real-world digital safety. With the info you’ve learned here, it’s easy to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.