If you enjoy online gaming and often connect with other gamers, you should ensure that your online safety is in order. It is important to think of your safety when you are gaming online as you interact with a greater network of users. Staying safe online is not as difficult as it might sound and we’ve got some tips to help you out.
When you enjoy gaming, you should make sure to know how to stay safe. While gaming online, you are dependent upon a strong strong internet connection. Being online and especially using platforms where several gamers are online and connecting can be risky. Scams in online gaming are sadly not that rare, as gaming allows players to interact and often demand small payments. Many games are free but some require small payments. Therefore, it is important to ensure your online safety when engaging in online gaming. Here is some advice on how to stay safe.
Don’t reveal your identity
Most modern games let you choose an alternate identity while you’re online – at least to some degree. When you log into an online game you will most often be asked to create a username for yourself which you use not only to log into the game world but also as a substitute for your real-life name.
Since this is as much for precautionary reasons as for usability, your username should not reveal any of your personal information. You should not base your username on your name, birthday, or anything that reveals something about your personal identity. This makes it easier for people to figure out who you are and how to gain access to more compromising personal data. Stick to your username when you chat and write with other players to keep things safe. After all, you don’t know who’s playing at the other end of the connection and it’s impossible to gauge whether they have good intentions or otherwise. So overall, it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to using personal information in such a public way, even though lots of us today don’t consider the internet a ‘public’ space – it is and can even be more invasive than real life.
Create strong passwords
Once you have a generic or at least non-descriptive and non-informative username there are a plethora of other ways you can stay safe online. One thing we always recommend is to take some time to consider your password. The key to having a strong and safe password is to create new passwords every time you visit a new website or create an online profile in a gaming community.
Think about it: you’ve just installed a game and created a log-in using the same password you use for your social media platforms or maybe even your bank’s online services. Once someone with malintent comes along and manages to hack your log-in information in-game, it won’t take them long to snoop out other areas of your personal information and potentially this could lead to you losing your digital identity and in worst cases leave you as a victim of identity theft or leave your bank account empty.
We know it can be difficult to keep track of new passwords for every website you visit but it is nevertheless an important part of online safety. If you find it difficult to keep coming up with new passwords, you can get some assistance from passwordhero. They offer both strong password combinations that will be nearly impossible to hack as well as offering reviews of some of the best password managers in the world – that way you won’t even have to bother with keeping track of all of your different passwords – the programs can do that for you.
Keep your computer updated
One great and quite easy way to secure your computer is to make sure your software and firewall are updated. You should enable automatic updates on all software as this once again makes it easier for you to stay protected without actively having to do something (other than choosing the ‘Update Automatically’ option when installing or updating the software itself). Some operating systems have updates on default, but it is important to check that your devices have the latest update. This is a great way to keep hackers and viruses out of your system. Keeping your systems updated and devices up-to-date with the latest versions of all software is a great way to protect your data and your online activity.
Most developers have direct access to error messages and are often contacted directly by people who have been targeted by malicious viruses and the like so they will often have a much more in-depth knowledge of what needs to be done to ensure that such attacks cannot happen in the future. This is especially true in the online gaming world where servers and players are often targeted by either spammers or DDOS attacks which can lead to you ending up losing your personal information or not being able to join the game servers, respectively. Once the software has been secured and fixed it’s sent out as an update for you to download and install – and then you’re even more secure, just like that.
Use your common sense
Be attentive to any odd behavior from other gamers. As stated above, the field of online gaming has sadly become a target of online scams as gamers can interact through the game world or on online forums where the game is discussed. However, you can keep an eye out for this by being extra attentive to the gamers you interact with. If you experience any uncomfortable or odd behavior (whether that be people privately messaging you asking for your personal information or if you see spammy behavior such as characters spawning in and out of areas or teleporting through walls without the skills to do so in the game), you should react to it. Report it to the developers behind the game and they will issue a fix or ban such characters as most developers agree that an online world should be a safe place for people to enjoy one of their favorite activities. And with the tips listed throughout this article, you will be more than capable of ensuring your personal safety on top of the precautionary measures that are already built in to the games you enjoy playing.