In-game purchases have accomplished multiple goals at once: providing game developers with a steady income while creating opportunities for players to enhance their gaming experiences. Whether it’s acquiring new skins, characters, weapons, or unlocking specific features, these in-game purchases have become a standard aspect of many online games. However, much like any other form of online transactions, these purchases come with inherent risks. The integration of financial transactions into gaming platforms has opened the door to potential cybersecurity threats. In this blog post, we will explore the cybersecurity risks associated with in-game purchases and discuss how both gamers and developers can protect themselves.
The Evolution of In-Game Purchases
Is playing online games safe? Conversions not in the game, called in-game purchases or microtransactions, have become a very profitable business in the video game industry. The global market of games is predicted to be worth about $200 billion annually by the year 2025, and a large part of that amount will be coming from in-game purchases. For instance, instead of just buying the game, players are given the opportunity to purchase virtual goods or virtual currencies to enhance their gaming experience, thus providing developers with added income even after a sale. This model proved effective, and thus the use of in-game purchases both in free-to-play and premium games became widely employed.
Classification of In-Game Purchases
When it comes to the purchase of things in the games, there are different kinds of purchases, and they can be grouped in the following ways:
– Cosmetic Items: These include skins, outfits, and other such visual customizations that do not affect the playing and progression of the game. These are especially common in games like “Fortnite” and “Overwatch,” which enable players to change the look of their characters and surroundings.
– Consumables: Such as health potions, power-ups, or boosts, which offer a player temporary advantages in the course of the game. This is common among mobile games in order to enhance the rate of play or gain an advantage over other players.
– Game Currency: In-game currency which users can obtain by paying real money for buying other items in the game. These include “V-bucks” in Fortnite and “Gold” in mobile games.
– Expansion Packs and DLCs: Content that goes beyond the original limits of the game, for instance, new levels, quests, or even the storyline. This is often done in games such as Sims and World of Warcraft.
– Loot Boxes: Random bundles that carry many in-game items, and several quests may hope to obtain a rare or valuable item. Loot boxes have often been subject to controversy due to the fact that they seem like gambling.
Though such purchases add value to the gaming experience, they make the players expose themselves to entering confidential financial details, like credit card numbers or online payment accounts. This is where the risks commence.
The Cybersecurity Risks of In-Game Purchases
How are cyber attacks launched? With the growing popularity of online video gaming, cybercriminals have found a lucrative target in gaming platforms. Here are some of the primary cybersecurity risks associated with in-game purchases:
– Data Breaches: The high level of acceptance of online video gaming has made it easy for cybercriminals to target gaming platforms, which are very appealing. Data breaches can compromise the identity and payment details of thousands of games’ patrons. For example, the Sony PlayStation Network, a data breach that occurred in 2011, exposed the data of 77 million accounts, including credit card information.
– Phishing Attacks: Cybercriminals take players’ logins and sometimes payment information through phishing. Usually, fake websites or emails and sometimes in-game messages are sent to players pretending to be game developers under which sensitive information is surrendered.
– Account Takeovers: Cybercriminals may use compromised credentials to manipulate players’ accounts, mostly those with in-game currencies or items regarded as of high value. Once they are in, they get hold of these items and sell them on third-party websites for real money, which results in a financial loss to the player.
– Malware and Ransomware: Downloading cheats, hacks, or unofficial mods can lead to malware infection in a player’s system. Cybercriminals may employ malware to extract private information, track the actions of a player, or demand a payment to enable access to the player’s account.
– Credit Card Fraud: Credit card information obtained through fraudulent activities can be used to make ill-advised expenditures in games. Phishing activities could eventually be a burden on the player and even the developer of the gaming platform.
– Virtual Economy Exploitation: The in-game currencies may also be misused to facilitate money laundering or other criminal activities. Criminals would use these virtual currencies as a medium of value transfer without revealing their identity, making tracing of illegal transactions almost impossible.
How Players Can Protect Themselves
How will we know if we are under cyber attack? There are several signs that can indicate a player is under cyber attack, such as unusual activity in their account, unexpected purchases, or receiving strange emails and messages. Players can take the following steps to protect themselves:
- Use Strong, Unique Passwords: Players should be able to create complicated passwords, and such passwords should be renewed from time to time. This way, even if one account is hacked by cybercriminals, the other accounts with different passwords remain intact.
- Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): 2FA is an additional security feature offered by some gaming platforms. There is a second level of verification whereby the users are sent additional codes to their mobiles, making it even harder for cybercriminals to log in to their accounts.
- Sufficient consideration should be supplied to the possibility of falling into the phishing trap: Players must try as much as possible to ignore any unsolicited advertisements, messages, or link distributions. Authenticating each communication and analyzing only officially provided sites is the standard method to avoid phishing.
- Keep an Eye on Financial Statements: Checking bank and credit card statements once in a while can help players locate all unauthorised transactions in a short period. These measures will help avoid unnecessary losses.
- Never Use Unofficial Mods and Cheats: The use of ‘unofficial’ software may introduce viruses, greatly weakening the players’ system. It is safer to avoid this type of risk by only relying on the official patches and expansions made by the developers.
- Restrict In-Game Transactions: Gamers should keep track of their budgets and limit the amount of both personal and financial information to be kept on gaming consoles. How to further improve security is by utilizing the same methods as when an individual is trying to buy the cards; individuals can use prepaid cards or virtual wallets.
Improvements Which Can Be Realized by Developers to Increase Security
- Adhere to High Guidelines On Security: Game builders should take security measures against players very seriously in terms of coming up with field encryption, paying methods which are secure, and coming up with frequent security policies. Maintaining players’ values should be among the first priorities.
- Educate Players: The developers can provide players with information concerning the possible issues raised by paying for items within the game and how they can go about protecting the safety of their accounts. Player education can contribute to reducing the chances of cyberattacks achieving their objectives.
- Establish Tools to Detect Unusual Activity: There are certain tools, such as automatic monitoring systems, that can be used by developers to watch for certain things, for example, reconnaissance accounts trying to access the system by logging in and failing several times or noticing many abrupt changes in the players’ spending. These can help in avoiding an account takeover in the first place.
- Provide Safe Payment Methods: There is a very good way to minimize one of the major causes of credit card fraud, which is the provision of payment on the internet, which is fairly unsecured and hence risky. Security of the payment information has to be assured by the developers.
- Ensure that Security Measures are in Place on Time and they are Relevant and Effective: Cybercrime components are dynamic; therefore, the measures that the developers put in place have to be dynamic too. Other methods of critical impact include the timely review and updating of security and management procedures.
- Clarity and Sensitization: Transparency with the players should be adhered to by the developers, and communication should be made as soon as possible after a data breach and security incident has occurred. Educating and informing the players on the relevant action steps it is going to take in case of a data breach would prevent a lot of damage.
Conclusion
Otome games have some new features that include in-app purchases. The benefits such features have on the normal player and the revenue generated for a developer are additional that every player enjoys. However, the introduction of financial data into gaming platforms has also expanded the potential threats to include cyber threats. Moving away from stigmas, there are constructive cybersecurity steps players and developers can undertake in order to avoid being victims of growing global cybercrime. With games progressing everywhere, so must our approach to PC security, so in-game purchases can be preserved.
