With over 60,000 dark web monitoring for gamer tag notifications sent to gamers since June 2020, Norton clearly believes its Norton 360 for Gamers is a winning combination that will help gamers defeat hackers and competitors alike.
Mark Gorrie, Senior Director at NortonLifeLock said: "It’s never been more critical for gamers to have strong security in place and build good safety habits to protect themselves.
“With many of us being forced to socially isolate in 2020, there was an increase of gaming in Australia. [According to the NortonLifeLock Digital Transformation Report, August 2020].
"As a result," continued Gorrie, "gaming has become a more integral part of the way in which we communicate and interact with friends. This has meant gaming accounts and the personal information tied to them have been a more lucrative target for cybercriminals.
"Norton 360 for Gamers is part of our vision to protect and empower people to live their digital lives. We want gamers to continue enjoying the gaming world, safe in the knowledge they have a Cyber Safety plan in place to help stay one step ahead of the cybercriminals,” continued Gorrie.
The security behemoth quotes its "new [December 2020] survey among nearly 3,000 gamers commissioned by NortonLifeLock and conducted by The Harris Poll found that many gamers are concerned about the trajectory of gaming security, with 72% of Australians surveyed worried that gaming will become less secure in the future. Further, 35% of those surveyed around the world [in the US, UK, Australia, Germany, New Zealand] say they have had a gaming account hacked.
"Locally, that number is even higher with 42% of gamers in Australia having had a gaming account hacked, including 1 in 10 (10%) who have had their account hacked more than one time, [according to that aforementioned December 2020 survey]. Experts at NortonLifeLock warn that gamers will need to be more vigilant this year as cybercriminals recognise the value of their accounts and personal information."
We are then told that "today’s gamers are faced with challenges that extend well beyond the game. From casual to hardcore PC gamers, personal information and digital assets abound in the gaming universe and are valuable to cybercriminals, putting gamers at risk for device vulnerabilities, phishing attacks and identity theft.
"A typical gaming account can include the gamer’s name, birth year, mailing address, email, mobile number, payment information, and other personal information that, with the right mix of information, could be used by an identity thief to wreak financial havoc. Gamer tags are ransacked for virtual items and personally identifiable information that are bought and sold for real money on the Dark Web. Once a gaming account has been breached, the gamer’s other accounts, from banking to social media, are at a much higher risk for account takeovers and fraud. [According to "The cyber awareness of online video game players: an examination of their online safety practices and exposure to threats" in the International Journal of Cyber Research and Education (IJCRE), 1(1), 69-77."]
We're told that "Norton 360 for Gamers was designed by gamers at NortonLifeLock to help protect PC gamers with advanced, multi-layered protection, including Dark Web Monitoring Powered by LifeLock, [Dark Web monitoring not available in all countries] a first in Cyber Safety, which monitors up to 10 gamer tags and notifies gamers if their gamer tags, usernames and email addresses are found on the Dark Web.
"To date, NortonLifeLock has issued more than 60,000 notifications informing customers their gaming information was located on the Dark Web. Norton 360 for Gamers also offers optimised notifications, permanently silencing messages except the most essential, eliminating the tension between wanting security and gaming."
Bob Shaker, Head of Gaming at NortonLifeLock said: "Gamers pour their passion, time and money into their gaming PCs and accounts, but they’re notoriously apprehensive about security because they just don’t want to be interrupted or experience slowness, or they may think the free stuff is good enough.”
“Many of us at NortonLifeLock are gamers ourselves, and we wanted to reimagine how we approach security and develop features tailored to gamers’ needs, like limiting notifications that could interrupt a game and adding gamer tag monitoring among the personal information we look out for on the Dark Web. We are excited to now offer Norton 360 for Gamers globally to help keep PC Gamers safe", added Shaker.
In addition to Dark Web Monitoring, NortonLifeLock says key Norton 360 for Gamers features include:
- Secure VPN: Browse anonymously and securely by masking your IP address with a no-log VPN to help protect against DDOS attacks, doxxing and SWATing [VPN available in most but not all countries].
- Notification Optimisation: We’ll only notify you if your PC is under attack, your protection is at risk, or you aren’t using a feature you’re entitled to use—and give you control over product reminders.
- Full-Screen Mode Detection: Device security for PCs that detects when you’re using full-screen mode, and silences all but critical security alerts. [Available on Windows only].
- PC SafeCam: Helps protect against potential stream bans and embarrassment with alerts on attempts to access your webcam so you can block them [available on Windows only].
More information is available at Norton here and NortonLifeLock blog here.
