Most of us play games on our phones. However, we never think about security risks while throwing angry birds at vile pigs. But lately,
gaming has emerged as one of the biggest security threats. According to the Wall Street Journal, major gaming networks are guilty of using insecure networks for handling sensitive data such as unique ID number of your phone. Such careless handling may lead to your phone being hacked.
Though, it has been reported time and again that various apps may transmit unique device IDs to third parties without obtaining prior consent of the users. But this problem becomes acute when such companies carelessly dumps this information along with other important data such as name, location and social networking data of the user, as in this case, the information available makes it very easy for a hacker to break into your system.
The Wall Street Journal also found that major gaming companies such as Zynga and Chillingo are guilty of such mishandling of data. Though, some of the companies may encrypt your data, but the study shows that the level of encryption is too low and thus is easily breakable. According to Aldo Cortesi, a security analyst who conducted this study, most of the gaming companies did not acknowledge his concerns about the security loopholes in their networks. Though, much to our relief, Zynga and Chillingo took several steps to patch up the security loopholes.
So, next time, you set up your virtual diner or tend to your online farms, make sure that your data is in secure hands.