The gaming industry has long been a magnet for digital innovation — online platforms, live casino games, mobile apps, virtual economies, in-game purchases, streaming, etc. But as these technologies evolve, so do the threats. As we recently reported, since 2024 cyber attacks have increased in sophistication. Adversaries now use advanced botnets, multi-vector and application-layer DDoS, phishing campaigns that exploit AI, supply chain attacks, and data exfiltration tactics that are harder to detect and defend against. Because the financial stakes are high (real money, real currency, real identities), the gaming industry has had to evolve rapidly to protect assets, players, and brand reputation.
Below, we’ll explore the kinds of attacks online casino and gaming platforms face, how live casino operators are defending themselves, and what additional protections the industry can adopt to stay ahead.
Common Types of Cyber Attacks Affecting Online Casino Gaming
Gaming platforms are especially vulnerable because they combine sensitive personal data, financial transactions, and constant connectivity. Some of the key attack types include:
- Data Breaches / Credential Theft: Online casinos hold vast amounts of sensitive user data, including personal and financial information. This makes them prime targets for cybercriminals. Attackers target user accounts, credit card information, identity details. Stolen credentials can be used for fraud or resold on dark web.
- Phishing & Social Engineering: Players are lured to fake sites, fake login pages, or tricked through emails or in-game messages to reveal their credentials or personal data.
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks: Overwhelm servers with traffic, rendering sites or games unplayable. More complex, multi-vector, and application-layer DDoS attacks have increased since 2024.
- Malware / Ransomware: Attackers infect systems or infrastructure to steal or encrypt data and demand ransom. These attacks have grown in sophistication, often using zero-day exploits or highly evasive techniques.
- Account Takeovers / Fraud: Using stolen credentials, bots, or automated scripts to hijack accounts, make unauthorized transactions, or drain balances.
- Bot Attacks & Cheating / Exploits: Bots, automated tools, or cheat software to gain advantage, farm rewards, or distort game economics. Bot traffic in gaming surged in 2024, per security reports.
- Supply Chain Attacks: Attackers compromise third-party software, SDKs, or services that a gaming platform depends on, thereby gaining access indirectly.
These threats are also more interconnected now — e.g., phishing might lead to credential theft, credential theft to fraud, or hackers using compromised credentials to gain deeper network access.
How Live Casinos Are Protecting Themselves
Live casinos present added challenges: real-time streaming, live dealers, frequent financial transactions, and high player expectations for uptime and fairness. Because of that, operators must use robust security models. Solaire Online is a live casino operator that has put a number of security features in place to protect its platform, user data, and transactions. Based on its privacy policy and related documentation, here are some of the security measures Solaire Online uses:
- Uses secured servers behind firewalls to host user and transaction data.
- Employs encryption on devices and in transit so that connections and personal data are protected from interception.
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is used when verifying user identity (e.g. to log in, or to access certain features).
- Access control: only qualified, authorized personnel can access or process personal data, with strict confidentiality.
- Physical security measures: standard physical safeguards, role-based room access, and fire suppression systems in data centers/server facilities.
- Data retention policies: Solaire keeps personal data in secure facilities, retains it according to industry / legal standards, and deletes it when appropriate upon request.
Additionally, Solaire’s FAQ notes that it uses “innovative encryption and security procedures” to protect data and transactions.
These measures help reduce risk from many of the types of attacks listed above. But these are baseline—industry norms are pushing further.
Other Ways the Gaming Industry Can & Should Protect Itself
To stay ahead of evolving cyber threats, gaming companies need a multi-layered, proactive security posture. Some of the best practices and emerging approaches include:
- Threat Detection & Response
o Use real-time monitoring, intrusion detection systems (IDS), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools, anomaly detection, and machine learning to detect unusual patterns (e.g. spikes in traffic, abnormal login behavior, bot usage).
o Regular audits, penetration testing, red-teaming to find vulnerabilities before attackers do.
- Strong Identity & Access Management
o Enforce MFA for all users and for internal systems.
o Use role-based access control (RBAC)—ensure only necessary privileges are granted.
o Frequent review of user permissions.
- Secure Development Practices
o DevSecOps: integrate security in the development cycle (code review, security testing, dependency checking).
o Keep software libraries and dependencies up to date to avoid vulnerabilities.
o Use secure protocols for communications (TLS, HTTPS), avoid weak encryption.
- Data Protection & Encryption
o Encrypt data at rest and in transit.
o Use tokenization or anonymization when possible (for data fields not needing full identity).
o Secure backups and ensure encrypted backups stored off-site or in segmented infrastructure.
- Bot Management & Anti-Fraud Systems
o Detect bots / automated scripts with behavior analytics.
o Rate limiting, CAPTCHA, challenge-response tests where applicable.
o Review economic incentives that might drive cheating or bot usage.
- Regulatory Compliance & Privacy Standards
o Follow GDPR, PCI-DSS, local gambling / casino regulations.
o Implement transparent privacy policies, clear terms of service.
o Be ready for audits and disclosures.
- User Education & Awareness
o Teach players about phishing, safe password practices, using MFA.
o Provide alerts about suspicious login attempts or changes.
o Support recovery options (secure account recovery, notifications).
- Infrastructure Hardening & Redundancy
o Segment networks so that if one component is compromised, it doesn’t expose everything.
o Use secure cloud hosting with shared responsibility models.
o Employ redundancy, distributed architecture to avoid single points of failure.
- Incident Response & Preparedness
o Maintain clear incident response plans: what to do if data is breached or system is attacked.
o Have communication strategies to inform users, regulatory bodies.
o Conduct drills / rehearsal so staff know how to respond quickly.
Why Sophistication Has Grown & What It Means Going Forward
Since 2024, several trends have made cyber attacks more dangerous for gaming platforms:
- Increased use of AI/automation by attackers to craft better phishing, fake interfaces, voice impersonation, etc.
- More reliance on cloud, third-party services, APIs means more attack surface.
- The rise of zero-trust models (for defense), but they are not always deployed universally.
- Greater regulation and legal pressure (because customer data includes financial information).
These forces mean that gaming companies must view security not as a cost or afterthought, but as a core part of product design and business strategy. Players care about safety, trust, fair play—and a breach can damage reputation, invite lawsuits, regulatory fines, and loss of customers.
Cyber security is no longer optional in the gaming industry—it’s fundamental. From data theft, DDoS attacks, account breaches, fraud, to supply chain threats, the nature of risk has grown more complex since 2024, with more sophisticated tools, automation, and scale. Live casino operators like Solaire Online show how platforms can build layers of protection: encryption, firewalls, MFA, access control, physical security, and prudent data practices. But as threats evolve, so must defenses. By adopting secure development practices, real-time monitoring, user education, regulatory compliance, and infrastructure hardening, the gaming industry can better protect its players, its assets, and its reputation. In a world where trust is everything, strong cyber security is the backbone of sustainable gaming.
