Cyber Security in Gaming
Our lives are moving more digital every day, and gaming is no exception. Advancements are being made every day, with new technology and entire worlds and universes are now being created for you to step into. However, with all of this excitement – it’s important to remember there is also a security threat with every game you sign up for. In this blog, we will be discussing different threats within gaming, and how to avoid them so you can have a stress-free gameplay experience.
The most well-known threat in gaming is data breaches. This is when the gaming provider loses the important information of gamers that have placed information with them. This can include passwords, emails, and credit card information. In these unfortunate cases, it is usually an accident and misuse of proper digital hygiene standards. In this case, there isn’t much that can be done other than change your password as quickly as possible, and hope the company start to take proper care in the future.
More serious cases can come directly from your set up. Malware, ransomware, and viruses will pose an ever-present threat to your digital life. So, ensuring you have the proper protection to your PC or laptop are essential. These attacks are entirely malicious and have the ability to completely infect your set up. Malware and viruses can reach you through different means including - but not limited to - unsafe links, brute force, and phishing. Clicking on unsafe links or complying with phishing emails can lead to malware infecting your computer. While you may assume that you would be able to notice dangerous links and phishing emails, the rise of AI and ransomware has led to the significant improvement of these malicious attempts. Spotting them has and will continuously become harder. Once you click the link, and allowed the malware in, there is virtually nothing you can do to stop the attack.
In gaming specifically, you can lose your data along with the progress of your game and have to start afresh. If gaming is a hobby and you have put many hours into it, then losing it all could be devastating. Hackers can also use brute force attacks to carry out complete account take overs, again resulting in the same losses.
Popular gamers who share their journey online, could be big targets for these types of attacks, but it doesn’t exclude smaller gamers who don’t share their life online.
To ensure you are keeping safe against these online threats, following important steps could shield you and your online world.
Keeping a strong password
We will never get tired of promoting the importance of having a strong password. You may swat away this recommendation and file it under the ‘I already know’ list of things. We always want to remind you to never take this lightly. No matter how much of a rush you are in, how many accounts you have, or how safe you think the site is. A strong password is the shield against a stomach dropping anxiety of being hacked or locked out. Making it difficult to guess with a random mix of letters and numbers, changing it often, having a different password for everything you have signed up to, and saving them on a fortified drive will be your most basic and yet helpful defence against every malicious attempt online.
Keep your software up to date & only download from reliable sources
This will ensure not only the game being at the best standard it can be, but it will also allow for updates in security.
Clicking links or downloading items from unreliable sources can result in your computer being infected with malware. Ensuring that you know the link is safe is paramount.
Reliable hardware
It is widely recommended that gamers use an SSD for their set up. They are faster than other hardware pieces such as HDDs, meaning that games can load much quicker. This is key for games with large files especially, so you aren’t stuck staring at a loading screen. It will also mean fewer stutters and a smoother gameplay. They are less likely to fail and are much quieter. Blending a seamless game with security can be an encrypted SSD. Our SSDs, as well as our entire drive range are hardware encrypted, and OS & Platform independent, so no software is required, therefore it will work on any device with a USB port. Having an encrypted SSD will allow all of your important data to be stored securely, so you won’t have to worry about any of the security fears mentioned before – all while helping your gameplay be a smooth as possible anywhere on any device.
To celebrate National Video Game Day, we are offering 15% off of our drives with code GG15. Happy gaming.
