Gaming is a hobby enjoyed all across the world. It is a way to stay entertained, learn new skills and stay connected to friends, family and those that share interests with you. This global market is now worth more than $396 billion US dollars and continues to grow year on year.
While consoles and arcade machines were once the main devices used for gaming, the rise of the modern internet has opened up the world of online gaming and now playing via smartphone apps or internet browsers is highly popular. In fact, nearly 82 percent of internet users play online games.
Mobile gaming in particular is on the rise, the modern high-powered smartphone with excellent graphics, high speed internet and lots of capability is able to run complex games. There are now 1.93 billion mobile gamers around the world, playing a variety of games either at home or while on-the-go.
Cybersecurity is a concern for gamers in the digital era
While there is now a huge range of choice of games online, something to suit all interests, there are some requirements that come with online gaming that have potential risks. For example, players are often required to share their personal information and sign up for an account to access gaming sites, and even share financial details to make payments.
When participating in such activities, gamers need to consider cybersecurity threats and game providers have a responsibility to protect themselves and their users from cyber criminals and nefarious activities.
A common cyber risk that online gaming platforms must try to mitigate includes account hacking or takeovers. This is where a malicious actor will find a way of accessing and using a legitimate player’s account.
Other cyber risks include phishing emails, social engineering, and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. A DDoS attack is designed to overload the gaming sites servers and either slow the speed of the game or make it crash for users entirely.
Poker and casino sites have cybersecurity measures in place
One type of gaming where cybersecurity is an important consideration is casino and poker. These types of websites offer players the opportunity to play and bet on casino games for the chance of winning cash and prizes.
To play on a poker Canada site, the user is required to register for their own account and provide identification to prove who they are and their age to make them eligible to place bets. This means sharing sensitive data and therefore robust cybersecurity is essential in keeping the player’s data protected.
Another example is making payments, players on poker sites will make deposits to their account and withdraw any winnings. This can involve sharing financial details such as credit or debit card information or interactions with third party payment providers.
Cybersecurity methods
So, what are some of the measures gaming sites like poker sites take to ensure they are protected and what cybersecurity protocols do they use to protect their own data as well as players’?
Multi factor authentication
Multi factor authentication (also known as MFA) is one popular tool now used by most sites to ensure accounts are only accessed by those they truly belong to. Identity theft is an issue as a malicious actor could use the account for fraudulent activity and withdraw winnings that are not theirs to take.
MFA isn’t exclusive to the gaming industry, it is used by retail sites, banks and education providers to name just a few examples. A user might log in with their usual username and password and then be provided with a verification code sent to their email or phone to confirm their identity.
SSL certificate
As shown by a valid SSL certificate, any gaming site that claims to take cybersecurity seriously should encrypt the users data. This means that even in the event of a cyber attack, the threat actor will be unable to decipher the data that they find.
This data could include the user’s banking details, their personal name, address and contact information. You can see if a site has an SSL certificate by clicking the padlock icon in the browser address bar on Chrome.
Payment methods
Third party payment methods are often utilised by gaming sites to give users a safe and familiar way of making transactions. Third parties like PayPal have their own robust cybersecurity measures in place and by using them, the gaming site doesn’t need to handle the sensitive financial data themselves.
The importance of players choosing a site with strong cybersecurity
Why should you care about cybersecurity as a gamer? Having a safe time online should be a priority when gaming, as a security breach can be an unsettling experience with privacy and financial consequences. Gamers should take the time to check out a site’s cybersecurity protocols before they sign up to play games.
