Online gaming is no longer just a leisure activity. It has become a lifestyle in itself. While some use it for spending quality time with friends and family, others consider it their life’s passion. Whatever may be your motivation, you cannot deny that there are certain risks that stem from online gaming too.
The single biggest risk of online gaming is that of malwares and viruses. Once these enter your system, they can not only cause havoc but lead to actual financial loss for you through identity theft. Often, identity theft is not purely for financial reasons but due to excessive competitiveness. Breaching of data and cyber bullying is pretty common these days.
When we talk about being careful while indulging in online gaming, no one is asking you to ignore attractive offers like no deposit bonus code 2023. All that we are suggesting is that you take a few steps to protect yourself from the perils of online gaming.
- Spend Time To Devise A Strong Password – One of the most crucial aspects of your online life is to devise a strong password which is difficult to guess. As per internet experts, a strong password should include a numeral, a special character (if the particular website permits), one upper case and one lower case alphabet and be greater than eight characters.
Further, your password must not include alphabets or numerals in sequence. Neither should your password be easy to guess (for instance, your date of birth, which is all over your Instagram profile). A password is your entryway to the online world and must be secured at all times. - Check Source Before Downloading – An important step in the online gaming journey is downloading the gaming software and associated files. Often, we may not spend the necessary money to buy directly from the publisher and save a few bucks. While there is nothing wrong in using third party sites, their genuineness must be verified.
Many websites that provide your free gaming software and cheat codes for various popular games use it as a bait to enter your system and act as a spyware to further the ends of the hacker. You need to download stuff only from sites which are free of viruses. - Protect Yourself Using A VPN – There are two reasons why you must use a VPN while playing games online. At the outset, many games are not available in all locations and you might be required to teleport yourself (virtually) to another location where the game is available. A VPN helps you with this.
Furthermore, even after you have entered the gaming ecosystem you might be required to use various payment methods like Net Banking and Credit Cards to avail some add on features of the game. It is recommended that you install and use a VPN while doing so in order to remain protected from viruses.
- Stay Updated On The Software Front – No version of any software is 100% secure but that does not mean that you keep using old software versions just because you like them better.
Hackers keep upgrading their attacks and so developers need to keep coming up with security updates to protect gamers. it is therefore important to stay updated on the software front. - Be Quirky With Your Usernames – It is no secret that most games and gaming consoles require you to create a unique username. While most of us spend some time setting a strong password (and rightly so), very few devote time to thinking of a username that does not reveal personal information about us.
The point here being that your username is very much public information. Not only does it come up in global game rankings but it also features in chat rooms and other similar community posts. This means that it should not divulge any personal information like name (unless you are comfortable with the same), date of birth, or location.
Some other steps that are a little inconvenient but which increase your protection to a higher level include setting up two-factor authentication, installing a good antivirus on your device, being wary of unknown links on emails and taking all necessary precautions while disposing of your gaming device.
At first glance, the above steps might seem like basic internet hygiene but a deeper dive into the world of gaming will make you realize that these are necessary for your protection from known and unknown threats.
