The advantages of technology have made a lot of things in the world convenient. These
days online games are even more popular. It is really easy to register yourself and open
an account with a gaming website. But security concerns are always a drawback of
online gaming for both players and the developers.
Online gaming portals consider safety measures seriously and attempt to protect
privacy and fraud, but players often get hit by cybercriminals. It is why it is necessary to
follow some security tips to ensure that you enjoy your game peacefully while staying
safe.
Do Not Reveal Your Personal Information
Most online gaming portals will provide you with a unique gaming tag that players use to
identify you. You should make sure that this unique gaming tag should not contain any
of your personal information like location, email, or name.
Cross-check the privacy setting and confirm what information is visible to other players
using the website or portal. Cybercriminals or intruders can use your personal
information to target you in a phishing or social engineering attack. They can even use
your Email ID to send you spam messages and trick you into sharing your password.
You can even use a VPN to mask your IP address and hide your location further. The
fastest VPN can add an extra layer of security, making your gaming experience even
more secure.
Use Gaming Mode on Your Antivirus Software
If the security measures of your antivirus software are too stringent, it may sometimes
interfere with your gaming experience. These types of software use a lot of processing
power from your computer. Thankfully, most antivirus software comes with a gaming
mode.
This mode will allow you to have an uninterrupted gaming experience by muting
notifications and stopping any background virus scanning. Suppose you have enabled
your antivirus software and you are experiencing any issues while playing the game. In
that case, you should try switching the gaming mode on rather than switching off the
antivirus software.
The gaming feature of antivirus software comes with several additional features like
device cleaners and game boosters that further enhance your computer’s performance.
Avoid Using External Cheat Applications
No one likes to lose, which can sometimes result in you downloading cheats that
provide your character with capabilities like infinite ammo, God mode, etc. Although,
you must know that these cheat applications can have malware installed, and they may
ask you to disable antivirus software from your system while the cheat is being installed.
When you download any such application, you are impacting the gaming experience of
other players and compromising your own security. Cybercriminals use such apps to
steal your sensitive and personal information like passwords, credit card info, etc., and
can even mine cryptocurrency using your device.
Some of these hackers can also lock you out of your data and ask for money to unlock
you. Not only this, using cheats can even lead you to a ban from the game. Sometimes,
these bans are implemented at the hardware level, which means you can not play the
game until you completely change parts of your device.
In addition to this, be careful while downloading unofficial mods or updates, as some of
these might be known for spreading malware. Only download it after you verify it
properly.
Configure Your Router Properly
A properly set router makes sure that your online gaming experience is smooth. It also
has some additional security configuration that helps safeguard your device from any
online threats. It includes a Wireless Network Encryption and firewall.
If you do some basic research on the internet, you will find out that these features
impact the quality of your gaming experience, but, in reality, it does not impact in a
significant way. The best way to ease your gaming experience and avoid lag or jitter is
to use port forwarding.
Experts recommend not disabling any security feature to make your online gaming
experience smoother. Also, you should make sure that your router’s firewall and other
security features are always enabled if they are already disabled.
Use a Firewall
A firewall is one of the most elemental steps that you can take to safeguard your
devices from any threats. If you have ever gone through an online connectivity issue
while gaming, you must have come across a tutorial that would have asked you to
disable the firewall completely. But, you should always let your video game and client
pass through the firewall. It will provide the video game with unrestricted internet access
while the security aspects of the Windows Firewall are not compromised.
