Strategies for video game companies to beat back cyberattacks

A man plays the newly released video game ‘Assassin’s Creed Mirage’ in a cybercafe in Baghdad on October 4, 2023 – Copyright AFP/File WANG Zhao

The gaming sector continue to experience rising numbers of cyberattacks on its companies, year on year. According to a report released by Cloudflare, ransom denial of service attacks saw a year-on-year increase of 67 percent in 2022. Meanwhile, 2021 saw a 167 percent increase in web application attacks.

This level of inciences can place gamers and their data at risk.

Oliver Green creator of autoclicker.io explains to Digital Journal how game companies can protect their developers from cyberattacks and ensure optimal cybersecurity.

Green explains: “Protecting online developers from cyberattacks is essential for game companies to protect their intellectual property, data, and the integrity of their games. Data breaches in gaming can have significant impact on both users and developers.”

Green also adds: “Games companies are a niche demographic and they’re known for spending a lot of money. Therefore, a gaming company’s financial status makes it a tempting target for cybercriminals. There are several measures companies can take to provide their developers with optimum security.”

In terms of measures that can be taken, Green recommends:

Security Training

This will help to keep developers and staff members up to date and aware of all thing’s security. It is important to ensure they are aware of common cyber threats, phishing scams, and the best practices for data handling and secure coding.

Access Control

Implementing a strong access control system will help limit access to sensitive information and critical systems only to authorized personnel.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) should be enforced for all accounts, including developer accounts. This is to add an extra layer of protection against unauthorized access.

Data Encryption

Ensuring sensitive data is encrypted, both in transit and at rest, is important. This will ensure that even if it’s intercepted, it remains unreadable without the appropriate decryption keys.

Secure APIs

If the company’s games use APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), it is important to ensure they are adequately secured and have proper authentication mechanisms. There are several methods you can use to ensure authentication:

• HTTP Basic authentication where a user needs to provide user ID and password
• API key where a user needs to a unique identifier configured for each API and known to API Gateway
• A token that is generated by an Identity Provider (IdP) server. OAuth 2 is the most popular protocol that supports this method.

Green concludes, observing: “At the very least you should use an API key (asymmetric key) or basic access authentication (user/password) to increase the difficulty of hacking your system. But you should consider using OAuth 2 as your protocol of choice for a robust security of your APIs.”