In brief
Making gaming apps a good business requires security throughout their entire lifecycle. Piracy, cheating tools, payment hijacking and data leaks can harm intellectual property, player experience and revenue; the article calls for secure development, assessments, hardening, monitoring and incident response.
The gaming app market is entering an unprecedented golden age. According to survey data, by Q1 2015, the gaming app market had reached nearly 10 billion. As games increasingly cross over into literature, film, television and animation, and as the gaming app ecosystem and industry standards gradually mature, this market will continue to grow. By 2017, the number of gaming app users is expected to exceed 500 million, with penetration reaching 70%. Companies of every size have an opportunity to secure a place in this fiercely competitive market.
Yet behind the thriving gaming market lies an illicit industry whose business is to “steal your business”. Life with apps is exciting and changes rapidly, and gaming app development also requires a race against time and a constant pursuit of quality. Creating a gaming app requires a good idea, but piracy could wipe out all the hard work you and your team have invested. The player experience is one of the key factors in a gaming app’s success, yet cheating tools can seriously undermine the rules of the game and expose users to various security threats. Payment models are the main source of revenue in gaming app development, yet cheating and similar activities can cause substantial losses for developers and players alike.
1: Piracy and intellectual property infringement
The piracy problem is more serious than you might imagine. Those interested can use an online “piracy finder” service to quickly check the extent of piracy affecting today’s popular gaming apps. The results may surprise you.
2: Fair play disappears and the player experience suffers
Among other effects, the wide variety of cheating tools undermines fairness in promotional activities. In addition, most cheating tools carry numerous potential risks, including advertising, hidden charges, mobile data consumption, and the disclosure of location and personal information.
3: Players and developers suffer heavy losses
Disruption to the paid experience and revenue models is currently the biggest problem facing gaming apps. Decompilation is a typical attack method. After an app is decompiled, user payments can be hijacked dynamically, with transaction requests submitted to the server modified dynamically before the data is encrypted. Such attacks may alter the recipient’s account number, name, transfer amount and other details.
4: Information theft costs developers both players and revenue
A data breach can lead to personal information theft and financial losses. In more serious cases, it may also cause a gaming app to lose loyal players and suffer declining revenue. Various attack methods can cause information leaks.
Defeating the various cheating tools and protecting gaming app security is a constantly evolving, marathon battle. Gaming app development therefore requires more than one-off “security”: it needs “security throughout the gaming app’s entire lifecycle”. Gaming app protection can provide developers with security safeguards and services before, during and after incidents, covering every stage of gaming app development. These comprehensive services include advice on secure development practices, the establishment of secure development standards, security assessments, security hardening, security risk monitoring and security incident response, helping make gaming apps a truly sound business.
Source: http://www.finet.hk/mainsite/newscenter/PRNEWSBJ/0/55cb040de4b089e4b4098a95-%E6%A2%86%E6%A2%86%E6%94%AF%E6%8B%9B%EF%BC %9A%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E8%AE%93%E6%89%8B%E6%B8%B8%E9%96%8B%E7%99%BC%E6%88%90 %E7%82%BA%E4%B8%80%E9%96%80%E5%A5%BD%E7%94%9F%E6%84%8F.html