Is Your Data Safe While You Game Online?

One type of security threat that can occur with online gaming is the theft of your credit card and personal information. When the PlayStation Network (PSN), was hacked they were not certain if credit card and personal information was compromised for certain but even if it just personal information that was taken that can be just as bad (Phillips, 2016). Personal information like: Name, username, password, code word, address, birthday, even home address. With such information a clever criminal has a huge head start into stealing your identity. Most gaming developers are in the business of making games, not network security.
Game developers needs to put as much effort into protecting their network as they put into the design of their products. Many of the smaller mobile app games utilize a cloud platform so basically they are relying on the company that manages the cloud to provide security. Not all of these games are developed by huge companies with many assets; many are just people who wrote apps. These people, (some of whom have no experience in network security), write a gamming app, and then go to companies like www.VULTR.com to put their game on a cloud server to cash in. These third party companies offer protection, some more than other, and a bit of research can help one find a well-protected third party. (Vultr Holdings LLC. ) In order to mitigate risk further one could procure insurance (Floresca, 2014). The gamers themselves could also purchase identity theft insurance
Gamers themselves could reduce their exposure by not surrendering their information in the first place. The PSN for instance does not need your credit card information in order to make purchases online, one could buy PSN card in a store using cash. Another way a gamer could protect them is by installing an intrusion prevention system (IPS). An IPS this is important because when gaming online you are connected to other people from anywhere in the world and have extra ports opened through your firewall. Being connected to other people also runs the risk of social engineering. The same lessons that our parents told us when we were children still applies, don’t give information about yourself to strangers (Dickson, 2016).

Works Cited
Dickson, B. (2016, June 8). Retrieved from Tech Crunch: https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/08/the-gaming-industry-can-become-the-next-big-target-of-cybercrime/
Floresca, L. (2014, June 19). Cyber Insurance 101. Retrieved from WS&Co: https://wsandco.com/cyber-liability/cyber-basics/
Phillips, T. (2016, 4 26). Retrieved from Euro Gamer: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-04-26-sony-admitted-the-great-psn-hack-five-years-ago-today
Vultr Holdings LLC. . (n.d.). Retrieved from Vultr: https://www.vultr.com/ddos/