Online gaming has grown tremendously in the recent past. With this heightened interest has come greater security challenges for operators and gamers alike. A lot can go wrong, from a little information leak in your favorite casino to unauthorized access to credit card information. Industry analysts are always pointing out security deficits and vulnerabilities.
Here is a look at some common security threats in online gaming and how the industry players can deal with these issues.
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Cybersecurity Threats to Gaming Sites
Hackers are always trying to gain access to online casinos for different reasons, including stealing clients’ money and information, bringing down the platform and stealing trade secrets and intellectual property. Here are a few ways they can use to access gaming sites.
Cash Fraud
Fraudsters have improved their game by accessing user accounts and carrying out cash scams on the internet. Hacking into a user’s platform is a lot easier than trying to gain access to the entire website. Here are some ways this is done:
• Phishing scams that cheat users into sharing their information
• Creating spoof sites to steal credit card information from the users
• Buying of user credentials from the dark web
• Offering bonuses or other help in exchange for player data
With access to the user’s account, the fraudster can go ahead and withdraw all the cash, spam other players, steal the banking information of the victim and change any account information.
eCurrencies May Deal with Fraud
One way to deal with such issues is to adopt crypto currency. These eliminate the need to use banking information or cards on gaming sites. Even if the hacker gained access to the site, they would not access your wallet data and cannot drain the funds in it.
There are several e-currencies that online casinos accept, including Litecoin, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin, among others. Ar ranking of the best Litecoin Casinos on the internet is available, where you can pick one for a safe gaming experience.
Game Integrity
Many games, such as those played in casinos, are games of chance, while others are games of skill. These games are run by software programmers that ensure fairness to players by making it hard to manipulate characters. This is very important for the general integrity of the gaming platform.
Unfortunately, criminals may target the very software that these platforms use to manage games. The compromised system may become predictable or give players a negative experience. In the end, the casino or gaming site may have a poor reputation and lose its licenses. Before then, they can make cash unfairly by manipulating games in their favour.
There are several ways companies can enhance the integrity and safety of the game, as listed below.
• Only feature games that are duly licensed by the respective providers
• Only feature games from reputable software developers with valid licenses
• Ensure that games run as required by providing the required server environment
• Doing regular audits of the games by third-party firms to identify any vulnerability
Ransomware and DDoS
A DDoS (denial of service attack) occurs when hackers spam a server hosting the games with traffic to overwhelm its infrastructure and make it hard for customers to access. In most cases, the website crashes. This can also happen to individual gaming consoles.
Sometimes, when a game does not go as the hacker expected, they can be tempted to retaliate by flooding the retargated player with superfluous communication requests. This makes it hard for the player to access the gaming platform. Players may also use this tactic to gain an edge by removing the dominant competitor.
Types of DDoS Attacks and Resolutions
There are several ways gaming sites deal with DDoS attacks, based on the type. From the user side, hackers may launch application-layer attacks to disrupt an app but not the entire website. The high number of requests makes the app crash.
They can also launch protocol attacks (network-layer attacks) and exploit any weaknesses in the protocols or procedures that run website communications. The result of the attack is a slowed network and eventually crashes it.
Finally, a volumetric attack eats into the available bandwidth with false requests that creates congestion. It blocks legitimate users from accessing these services and prevents any data traffic. This may also crash the site like other attacks.
Gaming companies handle this by monitoring IP addresses that are manipulating the network and blocking them whenever necessary. There are also off-premise, cloud-based solutions that are provided by the host or the network provider. Casinos also limit or filter IP addresses by location and volume to prevent attacks. Others have invested in firewalls to prevent certain IP addresses from accessing the sites.
Other Interventions
Maintaining PCI Compliance
There are hundreds of PCI requirements that gaming sites are supposed to comply with in order to protect vital card information. It is important that the platforms comply with each of them and regularly review performance to ensure watertight security.
The card data is the treasure that hackers look for when trying to hack into these systems. They can use the same method to steal cash or sell information on the black market. Many gaming platforms use payment card industry data security standard qualified assessors and scanning vendors to ensure the security of debit and credit cards.
Storing Banking Data on the Back Servers
Another important thing that gaming platforms do is store banking data away from the front-facing servers. This way, even if the servers are hacked, there is little chance that the criminals will access banking information. In most cases, the information is stored securely in another cloud service and connected to the server to enable transactions.
SSL Encryptions
Another location where hackers access and manipulate data is when the user device is communicating with the server. They tap into the information and use it for malicious purposes. Gaming sites can deal with the problem by encrypting the data. This means that the hackers cannot make sense of the information because it has been scrambled.
Cybersecurity is vital to all online enterprises, especially gaming platforms. These sites need to take several measures to ensure that user data remains safe at all times. The above are some popular interventions.
