Gaming: You Can’t Solo Security

Letter from the Editor — Gaming

We’re gamers too.

Whether it’s digging for diamonds in a virtual sandbox, playing the role of a hero in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), or looking for the perfect place to set up an ambush in a first-person shooter (FPS), gaming is how many of us let off a little bit of steam at the end of the day. Or maybe in the middle of the day when there’s a dead space in the calendar, now that we’re all working from home. Don’t tell my boss.

So when a game server goes down, or a gaming company’s network has increased latency due to a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, or an account is compromised and digital goods are stolen, we feel the pain both as professionals and as gamers. Much of the data we work with is generated by the teams directly protecting many gaming companies from these attacks. Which means that we have a pretty decent idea of the stress some of these organizations are under.

For this issue of the State of the Internet / Security report, Akamai is highlighting a survey of gamers about their thoughts on security in partnership with the esports production and broadcasting organization DreamHack. More than 1,200 gamers from across Europe responded, and the results are, as you’ll see, very interesting. While surveys aren’t the type of data we usually deal with in our reporting, understanding how gamers picture security and how that relates to the types of attacks game companies see on a daily basis made for some very thought-provoking discussions within our team.

The team enjoyed having a chance to research the topic of gaming from so many different angles. We know how we feel when our favorite games are under attack. We understand the pressure defenders are under to keep these systems online and running despite the attackers’ best efforts. What we hadn’t examined before was how gamers themselves feel about the security of their games and their gaming accounts.

If you take nothing else from this issue of the State of the Internet / Security report, please, please, please, remember not to reuse passwords, and take advantage of the tools gaming companies make available to secure your accounts. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go order a two-factor authentication (2FA) token or two.

Martin McKeay
Editorial Director