Keep your gaming experience fun by taking precautions to protect your security and privacy. Crucial private information is linked to your gaming accounts, such as your name, address, IP address, and credit or debit card details.
Cyber attacks could damage your device, lead to identity theft, and more. Once hackers gain access to such information, you may experience detrimental consequences. Continue reading to learn how to protect yourself from cyber threats and stay safe when gaming.
Risks To Gamers
If you’re not safe online, you could fall victim to cyber-attacks that risk your personal information and device. Two cyber threats gamers commonly face include malware and viruses.
Malware
Malware, or malicious software, is designed to damage your devices and gain unauthorized access to information. Gamers could run into malware if they download pirated games instead of the original.
Viruses
A computer virus is a code that spreads from device to device and replicates itself. Depending on the virus, this cyber attack may harm your device’s software and corrupt files and data. Viruses can also be complicated to permanently remove from the devices. You could get a virus on your gaming device by downloading or streaming games from an infected server.
How To Protect Yourself While Gaming
Use A Firewall
Gamers often disable the firewall on their device to download pirated games or connect to servers. However, a firewall prevents unauthorized access into or out of a computer network, protecting you from unsafe internet connections. That’s why a disabled firewall could make you an easy target for hackers.
If you are experiencing difficulty accessing a specific video game or website, you should allow that connection through the firewall as opposed to disabling the firewall altogether.
Use A VPN
A VPN (virtual private network) connection hides your IP address and protects your data by establishing a secure, encrypted connection between your device and the internet. A safe and encrypted connection makes it difficult for malicious actors to conduct DoS and DDoS attacks on you.
A DDoS attack is a distributed denial-of-service attack that disrupts the regular traffic of a targeted server. This hinders your ability to access your network and connect to websites as you typically would. Hackers may interfere with your internet access to pressure you to pay a ransom.
Using a VPN protects you from these cyber attacks but is not a comprehensive and fool-proof way to protect yourself, your device, and sensitive information. Purchasing personal cybersecurity prevents you from experiencing a cyber attack and mitigates the problem if it does occur.
Agency, a cybersecurity company, provides business-level security that protects you from cyber attacks like malware and viruses. Agency also offers 24/7 monitoring and response against cyber threats by cybersecurity experts.
Don’t Reveal Personal Information
Hackers may conduct a cyber attack using the information they can extract from you, your account, and your network. To protect your identity, don’t reveal personal information. Hackers may use personal information for identity theft purposes.
To protect yourself from cybersecurity attacks, keep the following personal details private:
- Full names
- Addresses
- Phone numbers
- School names
- Locations
- WiFi networks
- Passwords
- Credit or debit card information
But sometimes, your sensitive information is leaked beyond your control. Businesses you interact with and share sensitive information with frequently experience data breaches.
Once hackers access your sensitive information, they may open bank accounts in your name, use up your savings, or worse. A personal cybersecurity plan prevents your sensitive data from becoming compromised and manages the consequences if it does happen.
Agency also provides:
- Repair and remediation for cyber-attacks like malware, ransomware, and phishing.
- Reimbursement of costs for things like loss of use and loss of income.
- Complete ID theft coverage, loss of funds coverage, and credit monitoring.
Use A Secure Password
One of the most potent ways to secure your secrets is creating a strong password — every time.
A strong password:
- Uses uppercase letters, lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers.
- Does not include personal information.
- It is not reused.
Unique passwords avoid using common phrases and combinations like Password123 or 123456. If you have trouble remembering your passwords, Agency provides a password manager as a part of its cybersecurity solution!
The first month of Agency is free! Try it, so you can go back to playing games with peace of mind! You can also bookmark this article: how to stay safe online gaming, for future reference.
