As online games continue to grow into sprawling digital worlds filled with player-created content and virtual economies, security has become paramount. With real money now frequently changing hands to purchase coveted in-game items, the stakes are higher than ever. Both gaming companies, like Lucky Days Casino, and players have valuable digital assets to protect from threats that were scarcely imagined when arcade cabinets ruled the earth.
The risks inherent in these open, connected systems cannot be ignored. Hacks, exploits, and scams have already cost the gaming industry billions as cunning attackers manage to stay a step ahead of security measures. Clearly, a reactive approach is not sufficient when adversaries have financial or geopolitical motivations. Companies aspiring to lead this rapidly evolving landscape must build security into the foundation of each world and experience they create.
Understanding the Security Challenges Unique to Games
Games possess distinctive attributes that set them apart when analyzing cyber risks. Security teams must account for the complexity of persistent virtual environments, the vulnerabilities of networked architectures, the value of digital assets, and the motivations of various threat actors.
Persistence Enables Exploitation Over Time
Modern games are not discrete experiences, but rather evolving virtual worlds built to last for years. While beneficial for players, this persistence means vulnerabilities can be identified and exploited repeatedly, rather than only existing during a single session.
Networked Architectures Increase Access Points
The shift towards games as a service (GaaS) hosted in the cloud comes with expanded attack surfaces. Instead of targeting a console or PC, threats can now leverage networks, servers, application code, APIs, databases, and more. Supply chain elements like third-party software libraries also pose risks.
Many Threat Actors Have Shifted Focus to Gaming
While cyber criminals seek profits, gaming has also gotten the attention of hacktivist groups like Anonymous and nation-state actors. Geo-political interests related to data gathering, intelligence operations, and spreading propaganda have made the industry a target.
Safeguarding Digital Assets Across the Game Lifecycle
Addressing these realities necessitates security measures spanning technological and policy domains. Companies must commit to best practices when architecting infrastructure, coding games, detecting issues, responding to incidents, and determining rules of play.
Build Security Into Infrastructure
Whether leveraging cloud platforms or managing custom infrastructure, baseline controls like network segmentation, role-based access, and encryption provide foundational security.
Embed Security Into Software Development
Applying secure coding techniques and extensive testing during gameplay and infrastructure software development reduces vulnerabilities that could enable exploits. QA analysts should deliberately attempt to compromise systems and asset security throughout the development lifecycle.
Table: Sample of Secure Coding Techniques
| Technique | Example |
| Input validation | Validate type & length of all input fields |
| Parameterization | Use parameters to avoid SQL injection risks |
| Authentication | Confirm user identity before allowing access |
| Session management | Generate random session IDs; frequent renewal |
Detect Threats Early and Often
Once games and infrastructure are deployed, robust logging and analytics capabilities allow suspicious activities indicating potential threats to be identified faster. Emerging approaches like distributed systems tracing provide additional visibility.
Respond Decisively to Confirmed Incidents
Despite best efforts, some attacks will succeed. Having an incident response plan documenting containment, eradication, and recovery procedures makes these pivotal moments easier to navigate. Players should also have clear reporting channels to report fraud, harassment, or abuse.
Craft Rules of Play Limiting Risky Behaviors
Finally, company policies and governance systems play a key role in limiting behaviors which often enable cyber risks. As one example, restricting account sharing hinders hijacking, buying/selling accounts, real money transactions, and fraud. Community standards and EULAs/ToS can establish further expected player conduct.
United We Secure
At their most fundamental level, games provide experiences allowing communal creativity, competition, and human connection. As stewards of both player enjoyment and safety, companies must lead their communities towards a vision of open, equitable digital worlds where security enables rather than constrains participation.
Through technology and policy working in tandem across the game lifecycle, accepting nothing less than end-to-end encryption, distributed tracing, role-based access, and software authenticity checks, we can enjoy gaming’s continued evolution. Our collective passion and resilience shall carry the day.
