I feel I need to clarify, for legal reasons, that this is nothing to do with any Harry Potter game. The reference is made because we are dealing with spells and magic, and I mean magic in the literal sense, not a reference to application security – although on some/most days it feels like magic. Time-Of-Check Time-Of-Use (TOCTOU) and Race Conditions? What’s it all about?
For online gaming, player onboarding and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes are critical components of player engagement, retention, and compliance. Effective onboarding ensures that players can easily and quickly start playing games, while KYC helps protect operators from fraud, money laundering, and underage gambling. However, these processes can also create friction for players, leading to drop-offs and abandonment.
One of the guiding principles for organisations, whether they are major corporations or small firms, is to ensure compliance. Enforcing compliance helps organisations to adhere to fraud prevention guidelines, identify rule infractions, and shield a corporation from unwarranted penalties and legal action. PAN verification is one such crucial process before onboarding consumers, clients, and third parties in order to remain compliant and within the law.
Cybercrime can have a devastating effect on the gaming industry. Cases of identity theft, piracy, account takeovers, hacking and cyber-attacks are all common in this sector and they can cause financial losses and damage to a business’s reputation. Since the pandemic, cybercrime in the gaming industry was expected to settle, but the ongoing problem continues to rise in the gaming industry.
It’s reasonable to say that most of us have participated in the playing of at least one video game. Over 3 billion individuals across the world now spend their free time playing video games, whether they do it on a console, a computer, or a smartphone. It should come as no surprise that the market is thought to be worth over $300 billion. Since the advent of Pong, an Atari video game with a table tennis theme, in 1972, the industry has seen significant development.
Gaming is the largest entertainment industry worldwide, with a market worth over $197 billion USD in 2022. The pandemic has caused an enormous 26% surge in growth in 2019 and 2021 as users attempted to break up the monotony of lockdowns and stay close to friends and family. This large and growing industry where cash and data are exchanged online is a draw for nefarious actors.
According to a recent government assessment, India needs a regulatory body to oversee and categorise online gambling websites. The study, which was created by a committee of senior officials under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, advocated for involvement and tougher categorization of India’s online gaming industry.
When the American heist comedy Ocean’s Eleven was released on Friday, December 7, 2001, it topped the box-office draw for that weekend. The story follows two friends who plan to steal $160 million from three major casinos in Las Vegas. Entertainment Weekly called it “the most winning robbery sequence of the decade”.
India’s online gaming industry has witnessed an unprecedented rise even before the pandemic. It is in the world’s top five mobile gaming markets. However, COVID-19 and the following lockdowns saw significant growth in online gaming in India. By September 2020, almost 17% of worldwide downloads, with 7.3 billion installed games in September 2020. India has 400+ online gaming market players and is home to 420 million online gamers, second only to China.
Imagine, you are in the middle of a heated battle and are almost ready to claim the victory over your virtual opponent when you see a note on the screen: “We are experiencing a DDoS attack which may result in disconnections for some players.” Now?
