Will we see more online gaming data breach incidents?

Given the scale of this growing market, which is becoming increasingly monetised with in-game purchases often the norm now, we may see increases in online gaming data breach incidents.

When you look under the surface of the gaming industry, there are a number of reasons to feel concerned. The revelations about Fortnite hacking (or Fortnite cracking as it’s often referred to) is worrying. Some youngsters are making a mint by hacking into accounts and then making use of the often-hard-earned digital property the original account user had amassed as they sell accounts on.

Online gaming is on the rise. This could put a bigger target on their back for the cybercriminals and fraudsters who can exploit gamers with ransom demands and account takeovers.

Rises in online gaming data breaches incidents on the way?

One of the reasons why it’s fair to suspect a potential rise in online gaming data breach incidents is because of how the industry works at the moment.

A lot of young people are gaming online. Young people can be less savvy when it comes to online threats they face, and parents may be oblivious as to what their child is getting up to. The Fortnite cracking incidents is a clear testament to this when some kids are making thousands from simple hack jobs on other accounts and reselling them or passing them to organised resellers.

The fact that such accounts can be hacked so easily is also a worry. Without basic things like two-factor authentication enforced, it can be impossible in some cases for the genuine, original owner of the account to get it back.

What does that say about the industry as well?

Kids are also getting hold of their parents’ credit cards and making purchases as well, it’s understood. The industry can do way more to protect so-called “friendly fraud” incidents like this. Just how much do parents know about what can happen and how much digital wealth their child has developed?  The bigger their digital wealth, the bigger target for criminals they may be.

What to do if you’re a victim of an online gaming data breach

If you’re a victim of an online gaming data breach, whether you can do anything about it or not may be down to the platform as well as how the breach happened.

Although I think the industry could do more to protect people, you can only make a claim for data breach compensation where you can prove that the breach is the fault of someone else. Suing a person isn’t usually a feasible option, so it’s about the responsibilities of the platform or the industry organisations.

The 2011 PlayStation network hack was a case of data hacked from the company, meaning your case can be against them. But if your personal account is hacked because the hacker has fraudulently obtained credentials from you, it can be harder to hold the organisation at fault.

The other issue is people reusing credentials, and youngsters could easily be guilty of this. It only takes a username and password exposed from an unrelated hack for a criminal to then try and break into online gaming accounts where they can make use of the digital wealth.

Either way, with online gaming becoming more and more popular and increasingly monetised with youngsters the primary consumers, the responsibility the industry has to do more to protect people is important.

Worrying Facebook password data protection flaw revealed

Police Federation of England and Wales data breach