Be careful before you stream: Safe practices for live-streaming your gaming

July 2, 2020

Streaming your favorite games gives you the chance to socialize with your friends, maybe make some money and meet new people, and it’s just fun, but it can come with risks. I wanted to share with you a list of common attacks against streamers like us and what you can do to help protect yourself proactively and reactively.

Attacks you could encounter and how to help protect yourself

There are a lot of different attacks that streamers are faced with, and some may be tougher to notice than others. Here is a list of the more prevalent ones and ways to help protect your personal information and accounts.

Attack Type 1 — Cybercriminals can infect your computer with viruses or malware which can damage your rig or allow hackers to access your accounts. Once scammers have access, they can steal your gaming, personal, or financial information.

Solutions:

• Antivirus software can help protect your devices against viruses or malware, even if you mistakenly click on a link or visit a malicious website.
• Be sure to install any updates from your antivirus software. Many of these updates are created to deal with new threats or viruses.

Attack Type 2 — Hacking your game platform accounts (Steam, Epic, Discord, Twitch, and others).

Solutions:

• Use two-factor authentication. This extra step might seem like a pain, but it goes a long way to ensuring unauthorized people can’t take over your account.
• Use a different password and email for each service. That way, if one is compromised, you only have to deal with that one and not all of them.

Attack Type 3 — Swatting and doxxing. We all know what these attacks are: Someone publishes your information and they (or someone else) uses it to call local law enforcement, saying there is an emergency at your location and the police raid your home while you’re streaming. This could be dangerous and it’s unnerving.

Solutions:

• Tell your local law enforcement that you are a streamer. Many of them have lists that can help minimize the impact of these types of events when they happen.
• If you receive PR packages or early access games, fan mail, or otherwise discuss your address while you’re streaming, get a P.O. Box in a neighboring town making it very difficult for someone to find your home address.
• Don’t share pictures of your home or location on stream.
• If you use social media, you may want to consider not posting where you are going or doing until after you do it. This helps prevent your followers from showing up IRL — in real life — and making an uncomfortable situation. That is, unless you are doing a meet and greet and want them to come, then you need to tell them beforehand.
• Use a credit monitoring service to help detect if you have been a victim of identity theft and be able to quickly respond to it.

Attack Type 4 — Good listening skills. Yes, this is a type of attack. If you leave your mic, camera, or screen capture on and forget, you might accidentally say or show personal information that can lead to a dox or SWAT attack, or personal or financial data being exposed.

Solutions:

• Create a written list you follow whenever you start, stop, and pause a stream that includes all the steps you need to take to properly shut down or start up.
• Use a product that includes webcam protection that alerts you when your webcams are running for authorized and unauthorized programs. Another safeguard? Covering your webcam with a low-tech cover or piece of tape.