Like a Call of Duty player camped and waiting to snipe a vulnerable opponent, the game industry is one of the more vulnerable targets to cybersecurity hacking. The video game industry and its community is also one of the bigger targets.
According to Grand View Research, the global video game market size was valued at $195.65 billion in 2021, and from 2022 to 2030, it’s expected to continue growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of a robust 12.9%. Akamai Technologies issued a report in August 2022 that showed that games companies had more than doubled over the course of just one year, from 2021 to 2022.
Enter the RSA Conference (RSAC) 2023, which focuses on the world of cybersecurity, is taking place in San Francisco from April 24-27. Video games-related topics are included in the selection of hundreds of sessions that an attendee can pick from. Here’s a sampling of some of the sessions that game developers and professionals (who happen to be gamers) may find insightful at the RSAC show:
Metaverse:
Metaverse worlds have been rolling out for a few years now and continue to be launched. But it’s early days for this emerging segment of online gaming worlds, so fraudsters, hackers, and other malicious actors may well be lurking in these worlds. What kind of threats are emerging and what kind of strategies might be able to deter adversarial attacks in metaverses built on avatars and manufactured identities, often attached to mercurial crypto, Web3, NFTs, and blockchain networks?
The Lunacy of Web3
Dr. Tracy Celaya Brown, Iron Mountain Data Centers (Speaker)
Ira Winkler, CYE Security (Speaker)
Look Far Afield: Metaverse Security Secrets from the Gaming Industry
Kevin Gosschalk, Arkose Labs (Speaker)
Threats Inside the Darkverse: The Shadowy Underbelly of the Metaverse
Numaan Huq, Trend Micro (Speaker)
Metaspace Race, Securing Minors in the Metaverse – from the Start
Angel Grant, F5 (Speaker)
Denise Tayloe, PRIVO (Speaker)
The Art of Metawar: Hacking & Weaponizing the Metaverse to Redefine Reality
Winn Schwartau, SchwartauHaus, LLC (Speaker)
Metaverse: Top Security & Privacy Concerns
Winn Schwartau, SchwartauHaus, LLC (Speaker)
Gamification:
“Gamification” is a term for engagement mechanics that’s been around for many years. While it may be be sometimes overused, in cybersecurity it’s an actively useful concept that can help teach cybersecurity, enhance skills, and bring in and train new talent. Discussing how games, game mechanics, and game theory, can create and improve an organization’s cybersecurity is the objective of the session.
Cloud Threat Gamification: Lessons Learned and How to Set One Up
Jon-Michael Brook, Starbucks (Speaker)
Randall Brooks, Raytheon Technologies (Speaker)
Want to Play a Game? Get Your Game On with Hacking Gamification
Joseph Carson, Delinea (Speaker)
Beyond these sessions, there are a number of tabletop exercises; red, purple, and blue team simulations, and sandboxing that take place during RSAC 2023 as well, which can give some attendees an idea how simulations and “gamification” of security exercises take place.
To learn more about this year’s RSA Conference, check out their website to learn more about the agenda, vendors, passes, and registration.
