Feature: 'Mastering the Craft of Online Gaming Infrastructure'

In this latest exclusive Gamasutra feature, we present an overview of the recent Mastering the Craft of Online Gaming event in San Francisco, which saw presentations from Cryptic, Flagship, Trion World, BitTorrent and Netdevil concerning the future of the growing MMO space. In this excerpt, the article takes a look at the event's Security Issues for Online Games panel, which included a diverse panel and covered a variety of techniques employed by hackers to interfere with the operation of online games: “Security is always a prime concern for online business where the safety and reliability of network operations is essential for commerce. In addition to issues of IT, financial, and identity security, online game business face a unique set of challenges in which an aimbot can be as detrimental to profits as a stolen credit card. Moderated by Steven Davis, CEO of IT Global Secure, the Security Issues for Online Games panel included David Lee, VP of Engineering and Infrastructure for K2 Network, Scott Parcel, VP of Engineering and CTO of Cenzic, Varun Nagaraj, CEO of Net Continuum, and Micah Quinn, Senior Engineer at Even Balance. They discussed the various techniques used by hackers to disrupt online games, from web hacks to game cheats. “Web site hacking is a nightmare for publishers and it happens constantly,” Lee said. Some of the major vulnerabilities that web sites face are from Cross Site Scripting (XSS) and Cross Site Request Forgery (XSRF) in which attackers take advantage of form inputs in web applications to execute malicious code. “Most hacks are web hacks, not network hacks,” Parcell emphasized, and integrating security testing with early development is a prudent defense. Developers must test early and test often, he said.” You can now read the full feature here, which includes more in depth coverage from the recent Mastering the Craft of Online Gaming event, including topics on maintaining and updating MMOs, and creating a business plan for accepting online payments (no registration required, please feel free to link to this column from external websites).