Tailgating The Dangers Of Cybersecurity

Mihir Sanchala, Assistant Vice President Technology, PlayerzPot on how the platform deals with cybersecurity and identity theft!

Fantasy sports are online games where users bet on individual player performances rather than a team’s overall performance and compete against hundreds of other players in prize pools to overcome the odds. As sports betting continues to grow in popularity, users can make bets instantly on their smartphones. With millions of players and double the money involved, fantasy sports today is rife with risk.

For a deeper understanding of risks, one must understand the source and nature of threats and how they can affect one’s financial stability. Fantasy sports platforms gather data on measures that can be put up against the threats and the impact of successful attacks to understand the risks better. Also, to understand this, we connected with Mihir Sanchala, Assistant Vice President Technology, PlayerzPot. Sanchala shared his insights on how the platform deals with cybersecurity and more.

How does Playerzpot deal with Phishing?

Phishing attacks are one of the most common security challenges faced by digital companies. For

By Akash Mishra

this, at PlayerzPot, our strategy is to raise awareness amongst our employees and provide the latest tools to safeguard our systems. We host training sessions to make sure everyone in our team understands and is aware of the cause and effect of phishing techniques. We recently performed mock phishing scenarios where we used simulated phishing emails via third-party tools to assess our employees’ reactions.

We use well-secured mail service for all internal email communication that already provides securities related to SPAM filtering, attachment virus scan, etc. In addition, we conduct regular checks on employees’ machines to ensure they have the latest security patches, OS updates, Antivirus solutions, etc. These are some of how we ensure PlayerzPot is CyberSAFE from phishing and spam attacks.

Identity theft and heightened risk of criminal infiltration are the most significant threats looming over the fantasy sports platform. How is Playerzpot fixing the vulnerable spots amidst all the workings?

Identity theft is something that can’t be detected quickly and Mihir Sanchala, AVP Technology, PlayerzPot

easily. After a few re-iterations, we developed a solid protection module against identity theft, including OTP-based logins, device details, geolocation, IPs, & number of failed attempts checks before initialising user sessions.

We maintain users’ activity logs to find suspicious patterns during app usage and notify users on different channels to keep them updated on the account activities.

Identity theft is also possible by session hijacking, where a hacker can take over an existing user’s access. For that, we use end to end encryption during communication between application and server.

Permissions are given to apps to track your contacts and location. Even good apps can go bad; what is being done to monitor what and how much access to the platforms have?

Previously, users had no control over app permissions, but now users can control the information being shared from their device. In PlayerzPot, we ask for very few permissions in context, and that is also when the user starts to interact with the feature that requires it. We give the user liberty to continue using our app by disabling the feature that requires permission if they do not wish to share the asked details.

As people are happily betting away on their favourite sportsperson, what defence mechanisms are put up by PlayerzPot if cybercriminals come to poke holes?

PlayerzPot has stringent policies and protocols to check any violation of our Fair Play Policy. We have an in-house team of experts to watch over any suspicious activities. This team is always on the lookout and is prepared with a set of preventative strategies. We address the violations on priority and ensure necessary actions are taken like referred accounts deactivation, permanent account deactivation etc.

Participation in fantasy sports has increased exponentially. That’s one big target on the backs of fantasy sports companies. Reports of fake sites being set up to draw some of that traffic. How do you deal with that?

These attacks are severe and

We give the user liberty to continue using our app by disabling the feature that requires permission if they do not wish to share the asked details.

malicious, as it damages the authentication of our brands’ reputation. We, at PlayerzPot, execute our automated scripts frequently with all the predefined checks to find any fake sites with our brand name. Once our script triggers anything, we ensure taking the site off the internet entirely by sending cease and desist letters to the site admin or domain registrant. We also connect with the Google team and other search engines to get it deindexed so that it does not appear in search results.

How does PlayerzPot prevent brute force attacks?

Brute force attack relies on guessing possible combinations of a targeted password until the correct password is discovered. This is where a user’s alertness is very much required in various modes. However, still, as a company, we also need to protect against these kinds of attacks. To resolve this at our end, we at PlayerzPot have Two-factor authentication (2FA). This additional layer prevents anyone who has successfully obtained a user’s credentials from accessing their account without a secondary piece of authentication like One Time Password.

We use Captcha to prevent bots and automated tools activities on our portal. We ensure a temporary ban of an IP from logging or accessing a portal after several failed login attempts.

A successful cyber attack may cause mistrust and hinder financial development, especially if personal and financial data are damaged. To take full advantage of the benefits of new technologies in developing markets and increasing financial inclusion, we must maintain trust and ensure the security of information and communication technologies. There is always more to do regarding network security because the pace of change is impressive.

In the age where technology rules every aspect, securing and keeping player data safe is of utmost importance. This is the only way online gaming platforms can gain the trust of their users and ultimately prosper in the long run.