Gaming accounts offer players access to a variety of entertainment options and the ability to connect with a global community of other gamers. But they are also high-value targets for criminals who want to use your account for their own personal or financial gain.
Your first line of defense is the login credentials you use to verify your identity and access your account. That’s why it’s so important to secure your gaming accounts with strong passwords.
Why Do Criminals Want to Break Into Your Gaming Account?
Cybercriminals have several motives for breaking into your online account:
- Financial assets: Gaming accounts contain assets that have real world value, including in game items, game currency, skins, and tradeable items that can be sold to other players. Your account may also contain payment methods that hackers can use to make purchases.
- Identity theft: Your account may store personally identifiable information (PII) that can be used to impersonate you and commit identity theft. Valuable PII includes your name, address, date of birth, and more.
- Gaming progress: If you’ve spent years building up a character or making game progress, you’ve sunk a lot of time and effort into your account. If your account is taken over or gets banned or deleted, you may not be able to recover it. Hackers may even try to sell your account to other players so someone else can piggyback off your hard work.
How Do Gaming Accounts Get Compromised?
There are several ways that criminals can compromise gaming accounts:
- Phishing attacks: You may receive fake emails, text messages, or in game messages that appear to be from a legitimate source, like the game company or another player. But in reality, it’s a fake message trying to get you to turn over your login credentials. Learn more about gaming account phishing emails and how to spot them.
- Credential stuffing: If your login credentials get exposed in a data breach, even if it’s for a completely different account, hackers may try to use that information to login to your account.
- Malware and keylogging: Hackers may try to trick you into installing spyware that secretly watches your activity on your gaming devices, tracking your online activity and keystrokes. This software can record your username and password and give criminals access to your accounts.
How to Create Strong Passwords
To protect your account, you need a strong password that you keep safe from bad actors. Here’s how to create strong passwords and protect them from criminals:
Use Strong Passwords
Create strong passwords that are difficult to guess or crack. Don’t use common phrases or easily remembered words like your pet’s name or your favorite sports team. Ideally, a password should contain a random string of numbers, letters, and symbols that somebody else can’t guess.
Passwords should be at least 16 characters long to discourage password cracking software. You can use a website like How Secure Is My Password to test out password ideas or different variations.
Don’t Reuse Passwords Across Multiple Accounts
Using the same password across several accounts might be more convenient for you to remember, but it leaves you significantly more vulnerable to break-ins. If someone gets ahold of a single username and password, they can use it to log into multiple accounts.
Make sure to use a new username and password combination every time you create a new online account. This protects both your gaming accounts and your other online accounts as well.
Use a Password Manager
It’s true that creating and managing unique passwords across multiple online accounts can be overwhelming. That’s why password managers were created: these apps can automatically create strong, individual passwords for every account you have. All you need to remember is the login credentials to get into your password manager.
If a criminal manages to break into your password manager, they could conceivably get into your online accounts. But password managers often employ encryption tools and two factor authentication (2FA) for additional layers of security.
All IdentityIQ plans include access to a password manager for easy password maintenance.
Turn on Two Factor Authentication (2FA)
Two factor authentication (2FA) is a security tool that is commonly used for all kinds of online accounts. It requires an additional verification step when you attempt to access your account; when you enter your login credentials, you will receive a temporary code via an authentication app, email, or text message.
These temporary codes have a short window before they expire, and you cannot get into your account until you provide the code. If a criminal gets your password, they would still need access to your phone, email, or authentication app to get into your account.
Make sure to turn on 2FA for your online gaming accounts (and any other website or app that offers the feature).
How to Avoid Phishing Scams
You can create the strongest password in the world, but criminals can bypass it if they use a phishing scam that tricks you into willingly handing over your login credentials. Once you fall for a password phishing scam, your account is at greater risk of a break-in.
There are many types of phishing scams, but they all involve someone contacting you while pretending to be a real person or a legitimate organization. Email is one of the most commonly used contact methods, but you may also receive phishing text messages, in game messages, or even phone calls. Common types of game account phishing scams may include:
- Password reset scams: You may receive an email that appears to be from the gaming company, claiming that your account has been hacked and you need to follow a link to reset your password. But the link you follow is actually a fake website set up to capture your existing login information so criminals can access your account.
- Free offers: Another version of this scam can occur when you receive an offer promising to award you with a free prize, account upgrade, or in game item. To claim your prize, you need to follow a link to “sign in” to your account. The link will take you to a web page that looks real but actually steals your login credentials.
- Trojan horse spyware: You may get a message from a player or a fake gaming company, offering you a free game, mod, or in game item as a file download. But that file contains spyware that is used to track your activity and capture your username and password.
To avoid phishing scams, never provide your username and password when asked for them. Don’t trust emails, text messages, or in game messages that claim you need to reset your password, click on links, or download files. If you need to verify that a message is real, navigate to the company’s website on your own and reach out via official communication channels.
If you do need to reset your username and password, do it within the settings of your game account. If you forgot them, go to the official login page and select the option to get help with your login credentials.
Protect Your Gaming Account: Next Steps
Your gaming account can provide you with a digital playground and a way to connect with other players. But it also contains valuable assets and information that criminals want to get their hands on. Relying on simple or reused passwords isn’t enough to help keep your account safe.
Make sure to employ password best practices, enable 2FA, and know how to spot phishing scams.
Take steps to protect your digital identity and secure your gaming accounts by signing up for identity protection with IdentityIQ. We monitor your identity and the web and send an alert when we detect possible suspicious activity.
In addition, we provide digital security tools including antivirus software, a virtual private network (VPN), and a password manager with all our plans so you can better help secure your online accounts and game with more confidence.
