While consoles and arcade machines were once the main devices used for gaming, the rise of the modern internet has opened up the world of online gaming and now playing via smartphone apps or internet browsers is highly popular. In fact, nearly 82 percent of internet users play online games.

Mobile gaming in particular is on the rise, the modern high-powered smartphone with excellent graphics, high speed internet and lots of capability is able to run complex games. There are now 1.93 billion mobile gamers around the world, playing a variety of games either at home or while on-the-go.

Cybersecurity is a concern for gamers in the digital era

While there is now a huge range of choice of games online, something to suit all interests, there are some requirements that come with online gaming that have potential risks. For example, players are often required to share their personal information and sign up for an account to access gaming sites, and even share financial details to make payments.

When participating in such activities, gamers need to consider cybersecurity threats and game providers have a responsibility to protect themselves and their users from cyber criminals and nefarious activities.

A common cyber risk that online gaming platforms must try to mitigate includes account hacking or takeovers. This is where a malicious actor will find a way of accessing and using a legitimate player’s account. 

Other cyber risks include phishing emails, social engineering, and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. A DDoS attack is designed to overload the gaming sites servers and either slow the speed of the game or make it crash for users entirely. 

Poker and casino sites have cybersecurity measures in place

One type of gaming where cybersecurity is an important consideration is casino and poker. These types of websites offer players the opportunity to play and bet on casino games for the chance of winning cash and prizes. 

To play on a poker Canada site, the user is required to register for their own account and provide identification to prove who they are and their age to make them eligible to place bets. This means sharing sensitive data and therefore robust cybersecurity is essential in keeping the player’s data protected.

Another example is making payments, players on poker sites will make deposits to their account and withdraw any winnings. This can involve sharing financial details such as credit or debit card information or interactions with third party payment providers. 

Cybersecurity methods

So, what are some of the measures gaming sites like poker sites take to ensure they are protected and what cybersecurity protocols do they use to protect their own data as well as players’?

Multi factor authentication 

Multi factor authentication (also known as MFA) is one popular tool now used by most sites to ensure accounts are only accessed by those they truly belong to. Identity theft is an issue as a malicious actor could use the account for fraudulent activity and withdraw winnings that are not theirs to take. 

MFA isn’t exclusive to the gaming industry, it is used by retail sites, banks and education providers to name just a few examples. A user might log in with their usual username and password and then be provided with a verification code sent to their email or phone to confirm their identity. 

SSL certificate

As shown by a valid SSL certificate, any gaming site that claims to take cybersecurity seriously should encrypt the users data. This means that even in the event of a cyber attack, the threat actor will be unable to decipher the data that they find.

This data could include the user’s banking details, their personal name, address and contact information. You can see if a site has an SSL certificate by clicking the padlock icon in the browser address bar on Chrome.

Payment methods 

Third party payment methods are often utilised by gaming sites to give users a safe and familiar way of making transactions. Third parties like PayPal have their own robust cybersecurity measures in place and by using them, the gaming site doesn’t need to handle the sensitive financial data themselves. 

The importance of players choosing a site with strong cybersecurity

Why should you care about cybersecurity as a gamer? Having a safe time online should be a priority when gaming, as a security breach can be an unsettling experience with privacy and financial consequences. Gamers should take the time to check out a site’s cybersecurity protocols before they sign up to play games. 

The post Cybersecurity and Online Gaming appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

What is IPWHOIS.io?

IPWHOIS.io is a robust and versatile IP geolocation service that provides detailed information about the geographical origins of IP addresses. Leveraging a vast database, this platform delivers fast and accurate results, including country, region, city, latitude, and longitude. Beyond basic location data, IPWHOIS.io offers comprehensive details such as time zone, currency, calling code, and network-related information. With a user-friendly API that supports seamless integration into various applications, businesses and developers can harness its power for real-time purposes, cybersecurity, marketing, and more. Notably, IPWHOIS.io prioritizes privacy by adhering to GDPR guidelines, making it a responsible and reliable choice for businesses navigating the intricacies of IP geolocation in today’s connected digital landscape.

1. Fast and Reliable Geolocation Data

At the core of IPWHOIS.io is its ability to deliver lightning-fast and accurate geolocation data. Leveraging a vast database, the API swiftly translates IP addresses into detailed location information, including country, region, city, latitude, and longitude. This speed is particularly advantageous for real-time applications where quick responses are essential, such as fraud detection, content personalization, or targeted marketing.

2. Comprehensive Geolocation Details

IPWHOIS.io goes beyond basic location information, providing a wealth of additional details. Users can access data such as time zone, currency, calling code, and even information about the user’s connection, including the type of network and ISP details. This comprehensive approach to geolocation enhances the richness of data available to businesses, enabling them to tailor their services and content more effectively.

3. Easy Integration with API

One of the standout features of IPWHOIS.io is its user-friendly API, which allows seamless integration into various applications and platforms. Developers can quickly incorporate geolocation data into their websites, mobile apps, or backend systems with minimal effort. The API supports both HTTP and HTTPS protocols, ensuring secure and encrypted data transmission.

4. Versatile Application in Cybersecurity

In the realm of cybersecurity, accurate IP geolocation is a powerful tool for identifying and mitigating potential threats. IPWHOIS.io empowers security professionals to map out the geographical sources of suspicious activities, enabling proactive measures against cyber attacks, fraud, or unauthorized access. The API’s versatility in providing detailed information aids in building robust security protocols.

5. Geotargeting for Enhanced Marketing

For businesses engaged in digital marketing, geotargeting is a valuable strategy. IPWHOIS.io facilitates precise geotargeting by allowing marketers to tailor their campaigns based on the location of their audience. This level of personalization enhances the effectiveness of marketing efforts, ensuring that content, promotions, and advertisements resonate with specific geographic audiences.

6. GDPR Compliance and Privacy Considerations

IPWHOIS.io is designed with privacy considerations in mind. It adheres to GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) guidelines, ensuring that the processing of geolocation data is carried out responsibly and in compliance with privacy regulations. This commitment to privacy makes it a reliable choice for businesses operating in regions with stringent data protection laws.

7. Scalability and Reliability

As businesses grow, the demand for scalable and reliable geolocation services becomes paramount. IPWHOIS.io caters to this need by providing a scalable infrastructure capable of handling a high volume of requests. The API’s reliability ensures consistent and accurate results even during peak usage, making it suitable for applications with varying levels of demand.

8. Developer-Friendly Documentation

Navigating a new API is made more accessible with IPWHOIS.io’s developer-friendly documentation. The clear and concise documentation provides detailed information about API endpoints, request parameters, response formats, and code examples in various programming languages. This resource empowers developers to quickly integrate and make the most of the geolocation API.

IPWHOIS.io emerges as a standout player in the IP geolocation landscape, offering a potent combination of speed, accuracy, and versatility. Whether enhancing cybersecurity measures, optimizing marketing strategies, or ensuring GDPR compliance, the API caters to a spectrum of business needs. Its commitment to user privacy, scalability, and developer-friendly design positions IPWHOIS.io as a reliable choice for businesses and developers seeking powerful IP geolocation solutions. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the precision and efficiency of IPWHOIS.io’s geolocation capabilities will likely remain indispensable for businesses navigating the complexities of a connected world.

The post IPWHOIS.io Review: Fast and Versatile IP Geolocation API appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

From vulnerable plugins to weak passwords, let’s review how to ensure your WordPress site is cyber-secure.

Pick a secure host

One of the largest security factors for the safety of your WordPress site is the hosting provider. You shouldn’t go with the first option that pops up. Instead, spend a few hours researching.

You’ll run into ads promoting cheap hosts. But paying a low price leads to paying twice. Many people got their websites deleted by their hosts or breached because the host ignored cybersecurity.

Look for a top-notch company that performs daily malware scans. Good hosts also have 24/7 support, so any time you run into an issue, you can ask for help.

Use strong passwords

Here’s a surprising fact. People still use “123456’ and ‘password’ as their main passwords. What’s even worse, those two combinations are the most popular passwords in 2023.

Any kid or grandma can breach your WordPress site if you use such a weak password. So, you should change your passwords every six months and make sure they have 12+ characters, including special symbols, numbers, and uppercase and lowercase letters.

Even if your password is more complicated than ‘qwerty,’ it’s not secure unless it follows the rules above. Hackers perform brute force attacks. They have special software that can guess tens of thousands of letter combinations in seconds. If you have a long and hard password, the time it takes for them to breach it increases exponentially.

Update PHP

PHP is a crucial component of your site. Whenever a new update rolls around, install it immediately.

Many breaches happen because users don’t update their sites.

Old versions of this code make your site run slowly and negatively influence performance. So you risk SEO rankings, cybersecurity issues, and user satisfaction if you don’t make the update.

Use secure plugins

Plugins are essential if you want your website to look quirky and wow visitors. But that comes at a high price. More than half of all WordPress breaches happen because users install unsecure plugins.

So pick your plugins wisely. Check the popular and featured ones, and read the reviews. After installing, make sure they’re updated to the latest version. Lots of plugins suffer from exploits and bugs, and not updating them could lead to a breach. Don’t give hackers the gateway they want.

Use 2FA

Two-factor authentication is an extra step when logging in that sends you an SMS message or shows a disappearing code.

If a hacker guesses your username and password, they’d need your phone to log in. It’s a great way to strengthen your account, and it helps with file sharing. If you have the option to pick, always choose to receive codes through an authenticator app instead of SMS.

Add an SSL certification

Secure socket layer encryption is a must for every modern website. If you deal with payments and e-commerce, you must have this certificate.

If you don’t, hackers can perform a MITM attack to listen to the communication between visitors and your site. So when a user inserts their credit card data, hackers can save and abuse it.

The SSL certificate encrypts communication on the website. That way, even if a hacker intercepts the credit card data, they’ll see random characters that make no sense without a decryption key.

Limit login attempts

There’s one loophole that cyber attackers love to exploit on WordPress sites. And that’s login attempts. By default, you can try to log in as many times as you want in the admin panel. This is a great feature for people who easily forget their password. But hackers can abuse it to perform brute-force attacks without any penalty.

Limiting the number of times you can log in will stop hackers from trying to breach your admin passwords.

The post How to Ensure Your WordPress Site’s Cybersecurity appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

If you happen to live in Europe, consider yourself lucky, as the GDPR prevents Facebook and other social media platforms from ever trying to do something like that.

However, we’ll take our chances and bet that you just click accept and never look back every time you see a cookie banner. This could mean you’re still being tracked. So if you want to avoid that and have your much-deserved online anonymity, here is a list of the top 5 anonymous browsers created specifically for that purpose.

1. Epic Privacy Browser

Epic Privacy Browser is your all-in-one solution for web anonymity. It offers the user the ability to stop over 600 different tracking attempts that occur pretty much whenever you browse the internet.

As we said earlier, even if you have a VPN, there are still ways to uncover your true IP address through WebRCT calls. Well, Epic Privacy Browser has the ability to stop them and truly keep you secure 100% of the time.

The most common methods of tracking online are cookies, HTML5 storage, your IP address, and fingerprinting. Epic Privacy Browser blocks as many of these as possible; plus, the blocking process comes with a great side effect. It speeds up your internet. And who doesn’t want that, right?

Something as simple as a Google search resulting in the visit of even one site can potentially install over 3,000 tracking files. If you don’t want this to happen but want to take a peek at who’s been installing them, then definitely consider Epic Privacy Browser.

2. Comodo Dragon and Comodo IceDragon

Comodo Dragon and Comodo IceDragon are actually almost the same, but they are different in a few ways. The biggest difference between them is that the former is for Chrome and the latter for Firefox. So, you are free to take your pick based on your preferred browser.

One of the reasons why these were put on this list in the first place is that you can easily combine them with antivirus software to make your PC truly foolproof.

Comodo Dragon focuses on things like social media integration, providing the user with an easy-to-use interface, having the best possible security settings, and enhancing the browser’s performance. Comodo IceDragon, on the other hand, is more geared towards people who want to prevent all tracking that comes with downloading, stop cookies and any sort of third-party meddling, as well as enhance their privacy.

Considering there are two options to choose from, there is a bit of thinking to do. But, just remember, there’s no need to make a rash decision when it comes to your online privacy.

3. Brave

If what you’re looking to get out of an anonymous browser is better speed, then Brave might be for you as it promises to speed up your browsing experience at least 3 to 6 times. It also makes it super easy to import the bookmarks and settings you set up on your old browser.

Another neat thing about this particular browser is that it’s rather customizable as opposed to the other browsers. It comes with an entire menu of privacy settings, and you can choose which ones to turn on or off. The same applies to the shield settings (antivirus).

There are even options to earn Brave rewards by tipping your favorite creators through Brave or disabling ad blockers on your favorite sites. So, if convenience and simplicity are what you’re after, then Brave is probably the best choice.

4. Tor

Tor is an anonymous browser available for virtually any OS you can think of. It has become extremely popular lately, and for a good reason. Unlike most other anonymity tools, Tor doesn’t bounce traffic from location A to B. Instead, it directs it through multiple different locations, which makes it extremely safe and powerful.

By using Tor, you can browse anything and leave virtually no digital footprint whatsoever. No IP, no cookies, no HTML5 storage, nothing.

However, directing the traffic through multiple different locations comes with a slight setback. And that’s lower speed. This process, while allowing for maximum security and anonymity, will slow down your browsing speed significantly. But if speed is of no importance to you, then Tor is excellent.

Another thing worth noting is that if you do end up choosing Tor, it’s not recommended you use any extensions or add-ons.

5. Tails

Tails is available for Mac, Linux, and Windows so that you can use it no matter what your preferred OS is. It is USB-portable and leaves no trace whatsoever, promising to keep you safe and secure, no matter where you go.

Using Tails, you can browse without a trace. However, if you so desire, you can disable this function for a specific search.

The best thing about this browser is its excellent cryptography. While the entire thing seems really simple to the end-user, we assure you that it can encrypt all of your files, so you’ll never have to worry.

Final Thoughts

There you have it, five of the best anonymous browsers on the market.

It’s always important to protect your privacy, and we hope that one of these browsers will do that for you just the way you want it. So, take your time, think about it, and then decide. There’s no need to rush. This is an important decision after all.

If you have any questions or other suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below.

The post 5 Best Anonymous Browsers That Will Keep You Protected While Exploring the Web appeared first on WP Pluginsify.