Given the powerful influence of technology in our everyday lives, it becomes impossible to live a life devoid of it, especially when it not only fulfils our wants but also needs.
Most of our entertainment needs are met by the wonderful invention of the internet, where many virtual users spend most of their time indulging in online gaming.
As many people know, online gaming has become a major popular trend over the past couple of years. Children and adults both have been pulled into the world of virtual reality, which allows them to play online games with other gamers across the world and establish themselves well within the gaming community, especially through the famous esports games. It’s a great way to relieve stress, test your gaming skills and even uplift your mental capabilities.
Furthermore, like any other social media forum, these online gaming activities even allow communication between different kinds of people that are united by their love for gaming; you can meet gamers with the same interests as you or form a team with gamers and work together. All in all, it’s a great social and entertainment hub for gaming enthusiasts.
However, there has also been an increase in the cybersecurity threats to these online gamers, making it difficult for them to continue playing their games. It has been said that more than half of the online gamers have been unsure about future online gaming security and many average gamers have experienced being attacked by cybersecurity threats about 5 times at the very least.
Why Hack Online Games?
You must be thinking that what benefit could a hacker get by hacking a game? Well, surprisingly, they can enjoy enormous benefits.
Virtual money does not count as real-life money, but many virtual goods and information that gamers collect and save up in their games actually have a really high value and can earn them a coveted prize, which is why a gamer’s personal account is the most vulnerable when it comes to these threats. Hackers are always finding ways to attack an account that has high value virtual items so that they can steal it and sell it to any other virtual gamer who might be willing to buy it at a higher price.
What is Put at Risk?
Online games are no different than any other business websites. They all ask for your personal information and store up this data somewhere in their virtual space. Unlike the real life where you are the only one who knows where you have stored your possessions, the virtual reality can be quite different, especially those websites online that have not been fortified well enough to defend against these cyber attacks.
Exploitation of Real-Life Personal Information
If you think about it, a majority of your personal information has been asked several times and has been stored somewhere in the virtual vicinity of the sites that you have given these details to.
Furthermore, the more personal the data, the more it becomes valuable for the hackers. In fact, using specific devices for online games can also give out intimate information. Gaming from a phone keeps track of data, such as the incoming calls on your phone, your location and your social media activities which can be misused in any way if the data reaches the hands of any hacker.
And it doesn’t stop there. In case you have done online transactions or have a monthly subscription for any online games, your financial information also becomes vulnerable to countless cyber security attacks.
Virtual Goods Can be Stolen
Just as the heading suggests, your virtual goods are very much unsafe within your online games. If you are a gamer yourself then you must already be aware of how hard it is to achieve getting these valuable items.
Plus, the amount of effort, patience and time it requires to collect them is what makes these items even more valuable to steal; consequently, this becomes one of the main factors that hackers look into when wanting to steal these accounts. They steal these accounts either to use the goods for themselves or find themselves virtual customers who might be interested in buying these items within a profitable price range.
Games are Also the Victims
If you think that it is just your account that’s in danger, then you have underestimated the skills of professional hackers. Games themselves have also been repeatedly stolen from gaming forums such as Origin, Stream and many others. These platforms are where you can find authenticated online games, also have a collection of your favorite games stored virtually and even share in-game virtual items like wallpapers, etc. amongst other gamers. These platforms have been victimized several times by hackers who have stolen many accounts and entire valuable item inventories from these places.
Phishing – A Threat to Online Games as Well
As initially thought, phishing has been used only to get important data from prospering businesses across the world. But online gaming is also a very thriving business in the online entertainment community, which is why it has also fallen prey to potential hackers.
Phishing threats for online gaming can come in many forms. One such form includes making fake login pages to let gamers input their username and password or even send these users click-bait anonymous links through chat forums.
One of the most harmful aspects of it is that in case they don’t get a hold of the entire account, they still manage to steal your valuable items and personal data by accessing your online game account.
How to Keep Cybersecurity in Online Gaming Safe
Hackers can try to tempt people into giving in their personal information by any means they can find. Avoid phishing schemes as much as you can by staying aware of anonymous links. Do not open a link unless you are one hundred percent sure of its authentication.
These phishing links might catch your interest you through interesting deals, but you should be aware of the games that will be willing to make such too-good-to-be-true bonuses for their audience. If you are still unsure about the link, then contact the game management team to confirm about the details.
Another efficient way to stay safe from these cyber threat attacks is to indulge in password practices. They help you in choosing passwords with high strengths or even get aid from password managers who can advice you on choosing strong passwords that cannot be cracked easily. Furthermore, make sure that every account that you sign into has different passwords. This lowers the predictability of each of your individual passwords and lowers the number of potential cyber threats that you can come across.
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