More and more of the things we do happen online, from shopping to staying in touch to, of course, enjoying online casino games. While computers and mobile devices are immensely convenient and increasingly powerful tools, there is an element of risk that all internet-connected things share and that is security.
A number of large firms, including social sites Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn, credit check company Equifax and several others have experienced data breaches in the past few years, exposing the data of millions of users around the world. The widespread nature of these kinds of attacks goes to show that even the biggest players in the industry are not immune to malicious attention.
Today we will be offering our readers some helpful that will keep their casino accounts safe from prying eyes. These tips can be applied to any online account, from your email inbox to your Neopets account, and will help to keep your data protected.
This is probably the most important consideration for having a positive player experience and will impact all aspects of your time at any online casino. When it comes to security, this factor becomes even more important.
Selecting the right casino can seem daunting for new players – What do I look for? What do I stay away from? Luckily, there are plenty of resources out there that can help to make the decision easier.
A good way to get the lowdown on a casino is to read an online review. RightCasino readers know that we take great pride in offering balanced and fair casino reviews but there are heaps of other sites available too. A good review should tell you all the important info about a casino, including where it is licensed, what kind of payment methods are accepted and so on.
Another source of information is user forums. Keep an eye out for recurring patterns of bad behaviour or poor customer service. Remember, just like the best restaurant in the world can have a bad day and serve less-than-amazing food, so too can casinos and their staff. One-off infractions are nothing to worry about but having the same issues over and over, happening to different players, indicates that something is not quite right.
If you’d like to take a closer look at what a casino offers, it’s a good idea to have a look at the terms and conditions of said casino. These should be easily accessible, even for non-members, somewhere at the bottom of the casino site. Indeed, if the casino seems to have gone to great lengths to make the T&Cs hard to find, we tend to approach with caution.
Reputable casinos will prioritise player security above all else. Look for casinos that use SSL encryption to protect communication – that’s the highest level of encryption available at the time of writing and is used by entities like banks and governments to protect sensitive data.
Hackers make a living out of stolen user data, selling it on to the highest bidder or using it for their own unpleasant goals. When even big companies fall prey to these efforts, it highlights the fact that black-hat hackers, as they are known, are extremely good at what they do.
Setting a secure password makes the job a little harder for those after your account. ‘Password123’ just doesn’t cut it any more. Hackers employing what are called brute force attacks will make quick work of a common password like that. Brute force attacks are simply repeated attempts, usually via an automated script, to guess usernames and passwords. With a basic password like that, it won’t take a script very long to hit the correct combination.
Security experts LastPass offer several suggestions for creating the perfect password. These are:
Don’t use something that can easily be guessed such as your birthdate or some variation on ‘password’
Throw in capital letters, digits and punctuation marks, if the casino site allows them, in order to make the password more complex
Longer passwords are harder to remember but also harder to crack
Stick to good password practice
So you have set up a nice long password for your casino account. You have made sure not to write it down anywhere that can be found by prying eyes and you are feeling pretty good about your security right now. What more can be done?
There are a couple of things you can do to ensure that your awesome password remains awesome. The first is… change it. We don’t mean right away but it’s a good idea to change the password on any online account every so often. Stick to the same rules as before – a long phrase, made of letters, numbers and symbols etc – and create a new password every few months to add an extra layer of security.
Let’s talk about data breaches again. Say you used the password ‘Jackp0t2000’ to secure your online casino account. All is right in the world. But now there is news of a data breach over at Twitter or some other site where you have an account. Your casino account is safe right? Well, it should be assuming you didn’t use the same password to secure your account at the hacked site.
Hackers target large businesses on the (correct) assumption that many users will secure several accounts with the same email and password combination. If you used ‘Jackp0t2000’ to secure multiple accounts, suddenly all those accounts are vulnerable to misuse. The answer is to use different passwords for each site or account. This can be a headache but there are some reliable password manager programs out there that can make this less stressful.
Another way to ramp up your security is to ensure that your devices are completely safe. If your phone or laptop gets stolen, you will have to handle not just the loss of the device but the exposure of any passwords saved on it. Lock your phone with a fingerprint or passcode and lock your computer with a password as well. By putting more obstacles in the way of would-be thieves, you will buy yourself enough time to minimise the damage.
Two-factor authentication is also another way to keep your online accounts safe, particularly when it comes to email. After you type in your password, you will have to add another piece of the puzzle so to speak, to unlock your account. This could be a code sent to your phone or a USB token that only you have access to. This is a great way to secure your online activities when using a public computer or one that is not yours.
Keeping your data safe is of utmost importance and players must take responsibility for their data. While breaches may be out of our control, we can do a lot to minimise the damage and inconvenience caused if a site we frequent falls victim to such an attack.
Casino players in particular should be vigilant about their security practices as having your account hacked is not just an intrusive inconvenience but could also mean a loss of one’s winnings. Not a happy prospect for any player!
The thought of being hacked is not a pleasant one but with password best practice in play, you are doing the best thing possible to keep your casino account safe.
We know a good player needs a gooad start to smash those spinning reels like a true pro and that’s why we present the best way to begin your victory quest.
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