Top Cyber Protection Tips for Esports players and fans

 

Image from Pixabay

Esports has grown in leaps and bounds, and in another few years, is projected to outgrow conventional sports. Esports is a sport that involves organized and competitive video gaming. Because it consists of using the internet and is a billion-dollar industry, cybercriminals target it a lot. Some of the cyber threats to the esport industry for both players and fans include: 

Image from Pixabay

Extortion

Extortion may happen in different forms and mostly happens to players. The malicious actors dig up the players’ details such as phone numbers, social media account handles, and physical addresses. The hackers force the player to do what they want, such as giving them money or match-fixing or threaten to leak the information.

DDoS

Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS) is malicious attacks that flood an esport server with unwanted traffic, slowing it down or crash. Slowing down the servers affects online connections and disrupts the games, whose outcomes can be impacted by milliseconds or nanoseconds.

Malware

Both players and fans are vulnerable to online malware such as ransomware. Ransomware is launched when a player or fan clicks on email attachments or downloads infected files. Ransomware locks and encrypts all your files and account profiles. The hackers ask for ransom, which is paid in Bitcoin, to avoid identification.

Ways to protect yourself

Image from Pixabay

Use a VPN

A VPN download is one of the best ways to protect yourself as a player or fan. A Virtual Private Network encrypts all your communication. Encryption prevents anyone from eavesdropping on anything you send or receive on your network. The VPN also hides your location and IP address, ensuring no hacker can tell where you are playing or watching the game from.

Proxy server

A proxy server is a go-between your device and the World Wide Web. When you make requests, your traffic is filtered by the server on to the requested address and comes back via the same proxy server. This means no one will ever know your real IP address.

Multi-factor authentication

When you use multi-factor authentication, you use your regular password and another passcode. A new passcode is generated every time you need to log in, and it is sent to a device only you have access to. If a hacker steals your password, they would need the generated passcode to gain access.

Conclusion

Esports is a growing industry worth billions of dollars. As a player or a fan, take these security measures to protect yourself from cyber-attacks and avoid losing money and data.