Challenges of Securing Massively Multiplayer Online Games

TL;DR

This paper discusses the unique security challenges faced by MMO game developers, reviews recent security approaches, and analyzes real-world exploits to suggest improvements for the industry.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of security issues in MMO games and proposes modern strategies to enhance their security posture.

Findings

MMO games face significant security challenges due to their architecture.

Recent security approaches can mitigate common exploits.

Real-world breaches highlight the need for improved security measures.

Abstract

When it comes to security in the modern world, things have improved a lot since the early 2000s. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) have made the transfer of our data across the internet much safer than years prior, and the advent of VPNs and private browsing have only compounded that. However, the gaming industry has been notoriously behind the curve when it comes to security, most notably with Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games, which due to the intrinsic nature of their architecture, have an astounding amount of ground to cover. In this paper, the authors discuss the challenges that MMO developers face when trying to design a secure game, as well as some more modern approaches to security that will help improve the industry moving forward. The authors also highlight a few real-life examples of exploits and breaches that have happened and look at how they were mitigated.