Cybersecurity 
You can protect your digital footprint by deleting any accounts you no longer use, adjusting your privacy settings, avoiding oversharing on social media and using a
5 min read
Published on June 08, 2023
Updated on November 13, 2024.
With the rise in video game popularity in recent years, it is important to know how to protect your privacy online, especially for your gaming accounts. According to 2024 data from the Entertainment Software Association, over 190 million Americans ages 5 to 90 play video games. To stay safe while online gaming, you should follow password hygiene best practices, including using strong passwords, enabling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), keeping your software updated and learning common scams.
Continue reading to learn about the risks of online gaming and the recommendations to help keep your sensitive information secure.
How you can stay safe while online gaming
Luckily, the risks of online gaming can be minimized with cybersecurity best practices.
1. Use strong passwords
If you’re an avid gamer, you most likely have multiple gaming accounts. It’s important not only to use strong passwords on all your accounts but also to create unique passwords for each one to avoid password reuse. For example, if you have an EA account and a PlayStation account, you’ll want to use different passwords for each so a hacker will have a more challenging time accessing your private information. A strong password consists of at least 16 characters, with a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. You can create a strong password by using a password generator, which will produce a random combination of characters based on your criteria.
2. Enable multi-factor authentication
MFA is a verification method that requires you to verify your identity using a second method besides your username and password. For example, if you use an authenticator app as an MFA method, you’ll need to enter the code generated by the app to authenticate your identity when you log in to your account. MFA helps prevent cybercriminals from accessing your account, even if they obtain your login credentials, since they won’t be able to verify your identity.
Most online gaming platforms offer various MFA options you can enable in your account settings, as cyber attacks in online gaming are common.
3. Use a virtual private network
A VPN encrypts your internet traffic, protecting your connection and privacy when enabled. Many gamers avoid VPNs because they fear it will slow their gameplay. However, a good-quality VPN using modern security protocols shouldn’t negatively affect your internet speed. In fact, some VPNs are designed with gamers in mind.
A VPN is worth investing in for online gamers because threat actors on a live gaming platform may be able to see your IP address, which can reveal your location. Since a VPN hides your IP address, it prevents others you encounter online from seeing your location.
4. Pick an anonymous username
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) includes things like birthdays, names (including middle names), age and more. This may seem like harmless information, but a threat actor can use even small details about you to target you online. When creating a gaming account, make sure to choose a username that is anonymous and doesn’t include any of your PII. This ensures that other online gamers can’t connect your account with your real name.
5. Don’t share PII
While online gaming, it’s common to add strangers as friends once you’ve played together often or communicated digitally. You may feel you’ve built genuine friendships online; however, that doesn’t mean you should share any of your PII with people you’ve met through gaming. Do not share where you live, your phone number, your email address or other private information with people you cannot fully trust. Sometimes, it may even be necessary to withhold or alter details to prevent potential hackers from piecing together personal information about your identity.
6. Keep your gaming software updated
Software updates contain security patches that fix known vulnerabilities and add new security features. Cybercriminals often target users shortly after a new security patch is released, hoping to exploit a vulnerability before users update. This applies to video game software, too. It’s important to download a new update as soon as it becomes available.
7. Learn to recognize common scams
There are several scams targeting people in the online gaming world, such as phishing and spoofing. You can better recognize these scams by keeping up to date with the latest threats to gamers through trusted news websites and blogs. Knowing about the latest online gaming scams can help you spot them more easily and avoid becoming a victim.
8. Use a credit card to make purchases
Since credit cards offer more protection against fraudulent charges than debit cards, it’s recommended to use credit cards when making online purchases for video games, such as on the PlayStation Store or Nintendo Shop. Using a credit card for purchases related to online gaming gives you greater protection against fraud and identity theft. For example, if someone hacks into your online gaming account and makes a large purchase of video game currency with your money, it’s better to use a credit card rather than a debit card because your credit card issuer would be responsible for repaying any fraudulent charges.
9. Download and play games only from trusted sources
While free games may sound appealing, you should only download and play games from trustworthy sources. Many pirated websites and illegitimate sources offer free or discounted games; however, you should avoid interacting with or downloading these games, as they can infect your device with malware and lead to other types of cyber attacks. Only download games from official websites or app stores to avoid jeopardizing your data by installing a suspicious game.
10. Block suspicious or aggressive people
If a user you encounter online acts strangely, sends you messages with suspicious links or harasses you, block them immediately. These kinds of behaviors can escalate into targeted attacks that put your cybersecurity, physical safety and emotional well-being at risk. You may be tempted to ignore the message or respond, but blocking the user ensures they won’t be able to contact you again.
11. Adjust your default privacy settings
The default privacy settings on video game platforms are typically the least restrictive. Whenever you create a new account, check the settings and choose more restrictive options to further protect yourself online. For example, if you can make your gaming profile private, be sure to do so to prevent strangers from interacting with you.
The risks of online video games
Unfortunately, gamers are common targets for cybercriminals. Anyone you meet in an online video game could be a potential threat actor trying to steal your sensitive information. Here are some of the threats to your data security and safety that you may encounter while playing games online.
- Doxxing: This is when someone publishes your PII publicly, usually with malicious intentions.
- General harassment and cyberbullying: Partially caused by poor data privacy, online harassment and cyberbullying can enable cybercriminals to find your location and even stalk you in real life.
- Stolen accounts: Video game accounts are targets for cybercriminals because they are often linked to credit cards and contain PII. They are also valuable for achievements and rare in-game items earned while playing, which can be sold to others seeking higher status in a particular game.
- Identity theft: Any active online accounts, including video game accounts, associated with PII can make you vulnerable to identity theft. Like people who overshare on social media, gamers with poor cyber hygiene may share PII with strangers without realizing how it can be used against them.
- Phishing: This occurs when cybercriminals pretend to be an individual or organization you trust in order to steal your information. Phishing doesn’t only happen through email – it can also happen through the chat feature of online video games.
- Data breaches: Any time you trust your PII to an online entity, including a video game provider, that entity can be the target of a data breach. If this happens to your video game provider, any PII you stored in your account can be leaked on the dark web and used to target you in other cyber attacks.
Stay safe when playing online games
Gamers are particularly common targets for cyber attacks, so it’s important to take extra precautions if you play video games online.
If you take one step today, creating strong, unique passwords for all your gaming accounts might be the most important. Start a free 30-day trial of Keeper Password Manager to see how we can help keep your online gaming accounts safe.
