How to protect your gaming account from hackers and scammers: 7 simple rules

Russia in 2021 entered in the top five countries in terms of consumption of gaming content. Time for video games is periodically spent by 60% of the population, and the total annual spending on the games themselves and upgrades within them exceeded 383 billion rubles. No wonder this industry attracts scammers and cybercriminals. For the first half of 2022, the number of attacks on online gaming platforms increased by 45%. Fraudsters can steal entire accounts, characters, achievements and personal information of users. Now we will tell you how to protect your profile and prevent attackers from resetting your game progress.

1. Use two-factor authentication

Everyone has heard about this rule, but not many people use it in practice. Even the strongest password sometimes does not guarantee 100% security. In an attempt to find the cherished combinations, cybercriminals every second attack thousands of accounts. Two-factor authentication will greatly complicate their task: to enter the profile, they will need a second key, for example, a unique code from an SMS or push notification. Without your smartphone in hand, scammers will not be able to penetrate your profile.

It's cool if the platform itself offers the possibility of two-factor authentication. And if not, it can be added using third-party services.

Even with two-factor authentication, you should not score on a password. A complex combination with numbers, special characters, uppercase and lowercase letters will add more reliability to the account. Another rule is that the password must be unique. Using the same key as for social networks, mail or forums is risky - if fraudsters reveal it in one place, they will get access to all resources at once.

2. Choose different wording for login and nickname

Login - the name required to enter the system, nickname - to participate in the game. If they are identical, it will be a little easier for fraudsters to get to the account. They will see a pumped character in the game, look at the name of its owner - all that remains is to guess the password. If the nickname and login are different, cybercriminals will also have to choose a name to enter the system.

It is also better not to use a real name or login for them and a nickname from social networks. Then you will give hackers a hint on how to find you on other platforms on the network, and endanger your other accounts.

3. Do not share personal information with anyone

This rule is applicable for the security of not only game profiles, but in general all personal accounts on the Internet. It may seem that it is easy to recognize scammers in a world where everyone at least once in their life received messages from friends on social networks asking them to urgently throw money off. Nevertheless, Andrey Arsentiev, an expert on information security of the InfoWatch group of companies speaksthat this is a fairly common misconception. Criminals work according to different scenarios, for example, they introduce themselves as technical support employees, say that they are trying to hack the account, and ask for some personal data. After they get access to the profile and put it up for sale. Black market buyers are ready to shell out thousands of dollars for completed levels and upgraded characters.

It's easy to avoid falling for tricks: do not share your profile data with anyone. Even if in a conversation they introduced themselves as an employee of the online platform. Stop communicating and contact technical support yourself: they will tell you for sure whether something is really wrong with the profile. If it turns out that everything is in order and scammers talked to you, change the data in your personal account.

4. Do not connect to the game via public Wi‑Fi

If you suddenly want to pass the time online gaming in the airport departure hall or in a cafe, it is better to distribute the Internet from your smartphone. Under free public Wi‑Fi can disguise fake access points. Fraudsters create such to intercept user data. They are able to extract logins, passwords, bank card details from traffic.

It is impossible to identify a dangerous network only by name: sometimes hackers use the name of a secure access point - they create its full clone. By the way, sometimes even a gadget does not notice the difference, so for safety reasons it is worth prohibiting automatic connection to the Internet in the settings. A confirmation page can serve as a marker of the original public Wi-Fi - authorization on the network, for example, by mobile number. But even if it is, it is better not to go through a public connection to important profiles and not to make purchases in stores.

5. Avoid content from unknown creators

The most reliable way to upgrade your game is to choose original content from the developer, or download custom work from official workshops that review mods before publishing. But if the desired item, skin, map or other enhancer was found on a third-party resource, carefully study the reputation of the creator before downloading. See how many downloads his upgrades had and what other gamers write about them.

There are two potential dangers here. First, some mods will conflict with your version of the game and cause it to work incorrectly. Second, a modest upgrade could turn out to be a virus that steals personal information.

6. Check your computer for viruses

Often, the appearance of malware on a computer can be overlooked. To do this, it is not necessary to download user-generated or pirated content. For example, accidentally clicking on a fake ad about the need to update the browser or clicking on a phishing link from the mail also give viruses a ticket to your data.

Understanding that the malware is already sitting somewhere inside and collecting information from your profiles is also difficult - they work in the background. Therefore, it is important to periodically check the health of the device using an antivirus. And it is better to find a program that will not only solve problems, but also prevent them - cut off hacker attacks right at the start.

7. Read the site name in the address bar

Another simple tip, following which will help to avoid many problems. If you receive an ad for a new game in the mail, a gamer friend in a chat invites you to vote for him in a contest, or you see an advertisement for a prize draw somewhere, don’t rush. There is a possibility that this is a scam. Hackers often create copies of the original sites to carry out phishing attacks. There, they can prompt the user to enter their username and password, download a patch with malware, or buy a game, thereby leaking card data.

Usually a fake resource is visually identical to the real platform - it is difficult to identify a fake at first glance. Salvation - site address. Before taking any action, carefully study it and check each letter. Noticed at least one inconsistency - close it.