The iGaming industry has become a massive global market in recent years, reaching hundreds of billions of dollars in value. Encompassing a wide range of organizations and businesses including software developers, gaming operators, betting companies, and poker brands, iGaming is a fast-paced, technology-focused 21st Century industry.
The digital nature of the industry, however, means that the modern iGaming sector has more than its fair share of information security challenges, risks, and implications to navigate, making cybersecurity of paramount importance to all businesses operating in the sector.
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at the specific challenges facing iGaming operators, and the cybersecurity in gaming industry measures they implement to overcome them.
Cybersecurity in iGaming – Threats and Challenges
There are a huge variety of iGaming operators in the market, from smaller firms in niche markets to international corporations with a presence in numerous developed countries. iGaming activities range from playing blackjack online to sports betting and participating in lottery competitions. And crucial to their operation are high performance and constant accessibility. Users who are unable to access the game they want to play, for example, won’t think twice about switching to a different provider to meet their gaming needs.
Even the smallest iGaming operator experiences a higher level of web traffic than typical remote businesses and collects a vast amount of customer data, including financial data. This data needs to be made available and performed to the operator, particularly when it comes to approving new accounts, verifying user logins, and accepting and approving deposits and withdrawals. Therefore, keeping data safe and secure is one of the biggest challenges faced by operators in the modern industry.
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How iGaming Operators Combat Cyber Crime
One of the strongest defenses used by iGaming operators to combat potential cyber-attacks is Data Encryption. As the name suggests, data encryption technology scrambles and encrypts any data entered onto a webpage, such as a customer’s address, date of birth, or credit card details. The Transport Layer Security protocol (formerly Secure Sockets Layer) is a standard in the financial services industry and is quickly becoming the most prevalent method of cybersecurity in iGaming.
In addition to data encryption, more and more operators across the industry are implementing two-factor authentication into their platforms, particularly in regions where real money gaming laws can vary from state to state, such as the US.
This process fulfils any ‘Know Your Customer’ obligations an operator has by proving that they have done everything in their power to identify that customer account details are being accessed by (and only by) the customer in question, minimising illegal account activation and hacker activity in the process.
iGaming-related cybercrime, unfortunately, is showing no signs of slowing down as we progress further into the 21st Century, so there’s an urgent need for industry-wide and regulated cybersecurity and network protection. In the meantime, a number of operators are taking the matter into their own hands by partnering with cybersecurity specialists, as evidenced in the recent partnership between Win Systems and CyberHat to improve the security of online gaming operations.
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