Category Archives: Gaming

VPNs Have Exploded in Popularity in Canada, Here’s Why

A recent VPN usage survey commissioned by NordVPN found that over one-quarter of Canadians use VPNs.

As a country, Canada landed in the top five in terms of VPN awareness too. Nearly seven Canadians in ten have heard of VPNs. Other countries with above-average awareness include the U.S., United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan, Spain, and Brazil.

Demographics of VPN Users

If you’re wondering what the typical VPN user looks like, I’ve got you covered. They’re more likely to be male and the largest age group is between 25 and 44 years old. This group leads the way in most other countries as well.

There are two big factors intersecting here: being old enough to have a budget for the extras in life and young enough to recognize the need for better online privacy. Millennials, Gen Xers, and Xennials are right in the sweet spot.

So, getting to the main topic, why are Canadians adopting VPNs faster than countries such as France, Italy, Japan, and South Korea?

What Canadians Say About Their VPN Usage

HelloSafe surveyed Canadians across the country about their VPN usage and there are some notable differences in their results compared to NordVPN’s findings.

First things first, here are the reasons Canadians said they use a VPN:

To secure a Wi-Fi connection – 68%
To enjoy content from other countries – 36.8%
To hide an IP address – 31.5%
To avoid censorship – 26.3%

Interestingly, they found that only one in ten Canadians use a VPN at least once a week. That’s a big difference from what the study for NordVPN found. However, how HelloSafe phrased the question pushed the figure down. How many people are aware enough of their VPN usage to give an accurate response?

Although general adoption is undoubtedly higher, HelloSafe’s study could indicate that Canadians are using VPNs with a purpose in mind. While there are plenty of reasons to have your VPN enabled all the time, it’s common for people to use their VPN only when they want to achieve a specific outcome.

Reasons Canadians Should Use a VPN

Now that we’ve looked at the responses Canadians gave about their VPN usage, let’s look at the benefits in detail.

1. Safeguard Your Data

Companies and Institutions want your data to make informed decisions. Data about customers and potential customers is a valuable resource to them.

When you use online services, data about your usage and behaviours become part of a massive data set. It often happens without the user’s knowledge and their ongoing consent. Rather, the details about data collection are buried somewhere in the companies’ terms of service or privacy policy.

Additionally, malicious users and cybercriminals are always looking for ways to gain personal information to aid in their agenda.

VPNs give you a powerful way to opt out of excessive data collection which is now the norm. It protects your identity online by hiding your IP address. This makes it difficult or impossible for others to pinpoint your device and your location.

2. Get Access to Geo-Restricted Content

It’s normal for Canadians to feel left out when their favourite TV shows and movies aren’t available on streaming apps. Harry Potter, Good Fellas, and Seven are just a few examples of classic movies that aren’t available on Netflix Canada.

Canadian subscribers typically get access to less content overall than Americans on streaming sites such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. It works the opposite way too as shows like The Office and Fargo are available for streaming in Canada but not in the U.S.

Websites and apps sometimes use geo-targeting to determine which content or content libraries to display to the user. It’s annoying when music in social media posts, videos on websites, news, etc. are blocked in specific countries.

VPNs replace your IP address with a different IP located in the country of your choice. This allows you to view content intended for people in any country in the world.

3. Make Public Wi-Fi Safe

Public Wi-Fi is notorious for its slow speeds and spotty stability, but it’s security that people should be most concerned about. A survey by All About Cookies found that one in four experienced a security issue from accessing the internet through unsecured networks.

It’s best to assume the Wi-Fi you use in restaurants, hotels, or at the airport isn’t secure. That means your private data, including login credentials associated with sites you visit, is being transmitted with no encryption and could be intercepted.

Any time you use a VPN, the data being transferred from the network to your device and back is protected with the highest level of encryption.

4. Protect Your Identity When Playing Online Games

Online gaming is huge, and while it’s incredibly fun to explore digital worlds, being connected with so many other players has its risks.

Gamers have to watch out for malware, account takeover, phishing attacks through messaging, data breaches, and many other threats.

Gaming platforms like Steam and PSN collect plenty of data about their customers. While you can drill down into the privacy settings and make changes, there are certain types of data collection you might not be able to opt out of.

VPNs make it impractical or impossible for malicious gamers, gaming platforms, and third parties to see the IP address of your PC or pinpoint your location.

Looking for the Best VPNs?

It’s getting more common to see VPNs packaged with other software and services such as comprehensive online security suites. However, there’s power in choosing the best VPN for you rather than settling for solutions that try to do everything.

If you’ve never used a VPN before or are looking for a new one, have a look at LetMeBy’s top 3 VPNs.

Conclusion

There’s been a big boost in awareness and usage of VPNs. At this point, most people have heard of VPNs and they have a rough idea of what they do. Canadians are pushing forward and taking control of their destiny online.

Still, we’re in the early days in terms of leveraging privacy enhancement tools like VPNs. Canadians are using VPNs to achieve their goals but if the data from HelloSafe is accurate, most haven’t jumped in with both feet yet.

Why Gamers Should Keep Their Antivirus On

Some disable their antivirus before playing online games because they believe it gives them smooth gameplay, the highest FPS (frames per second) possible, and reduced lag.

Some functions of antivirus software can indeed interfere with your gaming experience, such as scheduled system scans, notifications of stopped threats, or virus database updates.

Disabling antivirus software might seem like a viable option in the short term. But at the end of the day, it can’t be justified due to advancements in antivirus software and the introduction of “gaming mode.”

Studies have shown that the normal functions of antivirus that monitor for viruses and malware don’t diminish system performance when you’re playing games.

Keeping your PC protected with antivirus software during gaming sessions helps you avoid many threats that are specifically affecting the world of online gaming.

The Rise of Online Gaming

Once dismissed as a fad, online games have become the dominant form of entertainment. Did you know that online gaming revenue dwarfs both movie box office and recorded music revenue?

Games like Minecraft and Fortnite have hundreds of millions of active users alone.

Harnessing the power of the internet has changed gaming forever. It’s opened up astounding creative possibilities for game developers.

Online gaming also exposes people to a variety of dangers. The internet has provided the means for these threats. The explosion in popularity of gaming has made gamers an attractive group to target for bad actors.

Gaming Mode to the Rescue

To give gamers the best possible experience while keeping their systems safe, a lot of security software offers “gaming mode.”

This ensures that scans and updates are delayed until the gaming session Is over. Additionally, gamers aren’t interrupted by notifications when it’s enabled.

Gaming mode is one of the top features gamers should look for in antivirus software. Understandably, people don’t want to compromise gameplay to protect their PC, and with this feature, they don’t have to.

Bad Tech Experiences Dictating Future Actions

Some gamers have experienced headaches with antivirus and games conflicting in the past, thus it’s driven them to disable their antivirus to avoid reliving them.

One surefire way to make antivirus a nuisance is to install third-party antivirus software while keeping Windows Defender enabled. In this case, two is not better than one. Having two security solutions running won’t double or even increase the level of protection. However, it will almost certainly double the number of scans, notifications, and actions taken by each piece of antivirus software.

It never hurts to check how your antivirus is configured to make sure it considers your gaming habits. A full system scan once per week is sufficient for many, and it’s far less likely to interrupt a gaming session than daily scans. Schedule scans at a time when you don’t play games.

Forgetting to Reenable Your Antivirus

Another reason disabling your antivirus isn’t a good strategy is there’s always the possibility that you forget to reenable it after a gaming session. Let’s face it, after a particularly long or intense stretch of gaming, it’s easy to exit the game and move on to thoughts that couldn’t be further than your antivirus software.

You can certainly forget to disable “gaming mode” in your antivirus too. However, your PC is still well-protected if you do.

Common Threats that Gamers Face

Phishing: Many are familiar with phishing as it relates to email, social media, and the web. Fewer people are aware that scammers also use gaming platforms or even the games themselves to trick people. If someone messages you and asks for confidential information it isn’t legitimate no matter how credible they may appear at first glance.

Malware: Here’s another reason to avoid downloading cheats: it’s a common way to get malware. Malware can integrate itself into legitimate pages, so it can be tricky to spot.

Viruses and trojanized games: Some files that are labeled as games aren’t games at all, they’re viruses. These trojanized titles can be found on shady websites offering free games and even legit app stores at times. On online stores, check the date of release and read the game’s reviews to confirm it’s genuine. Beware of players you don’t know offering you in-game equipment, weapons, or downloads. They could be using bait to infect your PC.

Data breaches: Any website you have an account with can be hit with a data breach. This means that cybercriminals have successfully stolen private data from a massive list of a company’s customers. The games you play and gaming platforms you use don’t need to be affected for this to become a threat. The data can be used for credential stuffing. This is when hackers use data obtained from a breach to attempt to get into your gaming account.

Spyware: It isn’t always individuals and other players you need to defend yourself from, it’s also untrustworthy gaming operations. Spyware is deployed to track the actions of unsuspecting gamers. It then can be sold to third parties they’ve never interacted with.

In-game currency theft: If you’re dedicated to an MMO and have amassed an in-game fortune and legendary items, this one is for you. Some bad actors are breaking into people’s accounts specifically to get a hold of their inventory and in-game currency. Players who have invested countless hours into advancing their characters should protect their accounts accordingly with unique, particularly strong passwords.

Conclusion

Disabling your antivirus during online gaming sessions isn’t the solution it may seem to be. If there’s a time you need that protection the most, it’s when exploring online worlds.

Check to see if your antivirus supports “gaming mode.” Once you get into the habit of using it, you’ll wonder how you managed to live without it.

How to Protect Your Privacy When Playing Online Games

From MMORPGs to battle royale shooters, it’s fun and thrilling for gamers to immerse themselves in a digital world filled with millions of other players.

Once an online game reaches the highest level of popularity it becomes like a world of its own—with its economy, massive variety of items, and culture. And while most of the dangers and challenges are merely a part of the game, there are also real threats gamers need to protect themselves from.

Online privacy is a hot topic these days. When digital experiences provided by social media, games, and apps exploded in popularity your average person wasn’t ready for the privacy ramifications of it all.

Like most tech companies, gaming companies want to collect data about their customers to improve their games, to better understand what gamers want, and of course to increase profits by selling the data or using the data themselves.

Savvy gamers are now deciding for themselves how much data collection is too much. More than ever, gaming platforms like Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live are giving people the tools to protect their privacy and specify which data they’re comfortable sharing and which data they aren’t.

So, let’s dive in. Here are the things you can do to improve your privacy in online video games.

Tweak Your Privacy Settings

When it comes to privacy settings, there’s almost always room for improvement from the default settings.

You need to drill down into menus and sometimes make decisions that prioritize either privacy or features and convenience.

Thankfully, once you tackle it, you’re in good shape for years to come until the gaming platform you use overhauls its approach to managing privacy.

To learn how to tweak your game console settings, see LetMeBy’s guide to protecting your privacy on PS5 and protecting your privacy on Xbox Series X/S.

Unlink Your Social Media

Many big game companies such as Blizzard Entertainment and Bethesda Softworks allow their users to connect their social media accounts to their gaming accounts.

It might seem like an interesting feature to explore if you post content about gaming, but linking to social media may grant the game company access to parts of your personal data such as your name, profile photo, or even what you post and in-game conversations.

It’s almost always preferable to log in with a password specific to that gaming account rather than something like Facebook as there is typically a privacy cost.

Keep Your Antivirus Active and Up-to-Date

Good virus protection is always a must on Windows, but for avid online gamers, it’s even more essential.

Some gamers disable their antivirus software to play online or don’t protect their PC at all because they believe it affects performance. Studies have found that in four out of five cases there’s no reduction in frames-per-second (FPS) when playing games with security software running. And in the rare case it has an effect, it’s not a noticeable one.

The hurdle is antivirus software can sometimes launch automated actions that interfere with your gaming experience. Some examples of this are antivirus database updates, notifications of stopped threats, or scheduled hard drive scans.

Choose antivirus solutions that allow you to delay updates and scans while you play games. Some security software such as Kaspersky [Amazon] have a game mode to ensure it doesn’t start using system resources during an intense boss fight.

Manually Block Data Collection

The services that collect data about you during a gaming session are stealthy indeed. These processes take place in the background so you don’t ever notice them.

Windows users have the power to block servers from collecting data about them. Open up your hosts file and add the IP address and hostname associated with the service you want to block.

Managing these connections manually requires research and tech skills, but you can’t always achieve the desired effect from the game or platform privacy settings. At times it’s better to take matters into your own hands.

Don’t Save Your Credit Card Info

Gaming platforms and consoles make it easy for people to save their credit card info for future purchases. Simply put, it’s more likely you’ll make purchases if you can do it in a few clicks. And companies like getting those frictionless sales.

While it’s no doubt convenient to have your credit card on file, it has risks that come along with it. If somebody gains access to your account, they could manage to collect your credit card info or even make purchases.

More and more, credit card companies are requiring confirmation that changes to your card are genuine. However, it’s still best to play it safe and enter your card info each time you shop for new games.

Use a VPN

VPNs create a secure tunnel in which all data flows between your internet connection and your gaming device.

Your real IP address is hidden and replaced with the IP associated with the VPN service. This makes it either difficult or impossible for companies and malicious users to pinpoint your location or gather data about you.

If you’re looking for a VPN, see LetMeBy’s top 3 VPN picks here. Alternatively, if you’re low on time, here are the VPNs most commonly recommended to gamers on this blog:

Avoid Using Cheats

Offering players cheats has become a common tactic used to trick unsuspecting gamers.

Here’s how it’s done.

Players looking for cheats and hacks will Google terms that bring them to an untrustworthy website. The site could use aggressive and misleading tactics to get players to click ads, complete surveys, or download malicious files.

Additionally, the cheat tool itself could use covert methods such as malware to obtain private data or it could use phishing to gain access to the gamer’s account.

Never download cheats as it not only goes against the terms of service in online games, it also puts your private data at risk. If you choose to download mods, do so from legit apps such as Steam or Epic Games and never from third-party websites.

Conclusion

Online gaming opens up incredible possibilities for players to compete and collaborate with other gamers, explore breathtaking environments, and acquire items that give their character a distinctive appearance.

It’s important to keep in mind that online games have greater risks as well.

There’s always a population of players looking for new ways to cheat and break the rules for their own gain. Online gaming has become so widespread that players are attractive targets for cybercriminals. On top of everything, many big gaming companies have become prying eyes.

Better online privacy doesn’t happen on its own. It’s something gamers need to strive for. And if you do, there’s a good chance your future self will thank you.

Casual Games like Minecraft Have Tons of Cheaters

Online shooters have a long history of issues with cheaters. When gamers start their rants about cheating, they often describe getting swiftly and unfairly shot down in Call of Duty, Fortnite, or Apex Legends.

This may be a surprise to some: Casual games actually have an even bigger problem with cheaters than shooters.

According to a recent study by Surfshark, casual titles are at the top of the list of games with the most interest in cheating methods. Minecraft, Among Us, Roblox, and The Sims 4 all made their top 10.

They created the list by adding the total number of views on YouTube videos that showed people how to cheat for a given game. It’s not the most accurate method, as a game’s ranking is just as dependent on its overall popularity as people’s intention to cheat. Still, the data gives us a good indication of the total population of cheaters in each game.

Cheaters in Minecraft

Created by the Swedish game developer Mojang Studio, Minecraft [Amazon] is a gaming sensation nobody could have predicted. It’s simple in its approach while most other popular video games embrace realistic graphics and complex storylines. In Minecraft, players build their surroundings and learn to survive and possibly thrive in pre-generated worlds.

According to the metrics tracking site Activeplayer.io, Minecraft has over 168 million active players per month. Surfshark found there were 30,560,700 YouTube views associated with cheating in Minecraft. So, if cheaters watched an average of 10 videos that would mean there are roughly 3,056,070 of them.

Minecraft offers astonishing possibilities, and for players who still want more, there are over 100,000 mods available. Mods are fun and harmless in single-player mode, but when mods are used in multiplayer it becomes a source of frustration for other players.

Cheaters in Among Us

Among Us is an online multiplayer social deduction game developed by Innersloth. It’s a murder mystery game in which one to three players are randomly chosen as imposters. Players explore a spaceship named “The Skeld,” the headquarters of the company MIRA, a research base on the planet Polus, or an Airship. You work together with online players to determine who can be trusted, and who can’t.

According to the metrics tracking site Activeplayer.io, Among Us has over 49 million active players per month. Surfshark found there were 15,984,835 YouTube views associated with cheating in Among Us. So, if cheaters watched an average of 10 videos that would mean there are roughly 1,598,484 of them.

There are two main paths Among Us cheaters can take. The first is when players covertly communicate with other players who are actually their friends. Even if the cheater’s character is dead or not on the other player’s team, they share tips about who the impostor is or who it isn’t. The second path is to hack the game. Cheaters use this method to kill everyone instantly, find out who’s an impostor, or allow their character to move insanely fast.

Cheaters in Roblox

Roblox is a game within a game. Its creator system turns everyday people into game creators. Games like Work at a Pizza Place, Hide and Seek Extreme, Pet Simulator X, and Jailbreak put players in novel scenarios they don’t experience in mainstream titles. It is community-focused in terms of competing in challenges as well. In fact, Roblox games can support up to 100 players.

According to the metrics tracking site Activeplayer.io, Roblox has over 201 million active players per month. Surfshark found there were 10,835,172 YouTube views associated with cheating in Roblox. So, if cheaters watched an average of 10 videos that would mean there are roughly 1,083,517 of them.

Roblox cheaters buy or obtain scripts that let them do things in the game that are normally impossible. These exploits allow them to fly around, walk through walls, teleport, shoot through walls, and do other strange actions.

Cheaters in The Sims 4

The Sims 4 [Amazon] is a social simulation game that replicates everyday life and makes even the mundane fun. Players can build and furnish a home for their characters aka “Sims,” dress them and send them out into the world to start their career, hang out in the city, or visit a horse ranch. Completing objectives is optional, with the main focus of the game being on making choices and exploring the interactive environment.

According to its publisher EA, The Sims 4 has over 70 million active players. Surfshark found there were 10,808,200 YouTube views associated with cheating in The Sims 4. So, if cheaters watched an average of 10 videos that would mean there are roughly 1,080,820 of them.

Players can cheat on their significant others in The Sims, but this is about the other kind of cheating! The Sims 4 features built-in cheat codes that allow players to gain money, improve their skills instantly, escape death, and a lot more. As if that wasn’t enough there’s a vast number of fan-made mods available as well.

Conclusion

Shooters and RPGs are top genres when it comes to the number of people who use exploits to cheat. However, the casual genre is king.

Cheaters typically can’t do anything to harm players outside the game, but they’re still an annoying menace.

Every popular online game has cheaters so don’t let it dissuade you from enjoying your favourite games. Most game developers work hard to make sure cheaters don’t ruin the experience for everyone.

Stopping Cheaters in Fortnite Is a Game of Whack-A-Mole

Ever gotten beaten by a player that never missed once in Fortnite? If you’re like most players, it happens too often.

It probably wasn’t a player with superhuman skills, or your imagination, or luck. Odds are you encountered an aim-botter. And it’s one of the most common ways players cheat in the game.

Fortnite Tops the List for the Most Cheaters

A recent study by Surfshark found that Fortnite has the biggest cheating problem out of any online game.

It looked at how many views videos about cheating have on YouTube. Fortnite was number one by a wide margin, followed by Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

As much as it’s disconcerting for Fortnite players it’s also a testament of its incredible popularity. Fortnite is one of the biggest games in the world right now. And the more players, the higher the headcount of cheaters.

The Types of Hacks on Fortnite

The Fortnite cheats you often hear about from game journalists and frustrated players are aimbot and wallhack.

A website that sells Fortnite cheats stated its top hacks include “Aimbot, ESP, Wallhack, Radar Hack, Trigger Bot, No Recoil and more.” They are being sold for around $10.

Aimbot

Aimbot is a cheat that shows no mercy. Every shot hits its target. Players can run, duck, or jump to try to save themselves but their every movement is perfectly tracked. And the cheater’s opponents are blasted away without hesitation. In fact, aimbots are so precise that they can target parts of the body such as the head, neck, chest, or leg.

Wallhack aka ESP

Wallhack makes it impossible for players to hide and use the element of surprise to their advantage. It allows cheaters to see behind walls, structures, and parts of the terrain like mountains and boulders. It’s a devastating hack because Fortnite is all about building forts and using them in battle. Coupled with aimbot this puts cheaters in “god mode” so other players don’t stand a chance.

Epic Games Takes A Stand

So, is developer Epic Games dropping the ball? Although it can seem like it when emotions are riding high after getting blasted by an aim-botter, the company is actually pulling out all the stops to make it difficult for cheaters.

Community Coordinator Nathan Mooney had this to say on Fortnite’s official blog:

To start, addressing cheaters in Fortnite is the highest priority across Epic Games. We are constantly working against both the cheaters themselves and the cheat providers. And it’s ongoing, we’re exploring every measure to ensure these cheaters are removed and stay removed from Fortnite Battle Royale and the Epic ecosystem. We don’t want to give too many clues about what we’re doing, but we are rolling out tools and will continue to do so. Thousands have been banned and we have no plans to stop!

Note that he says it’s ongoing. The sad reality is every time Epic Games implements a new way to thwart cheating the Fortnite communities’ bad apples eventually figure out how to get around it.

In 2022 Epic rolled out new anti-cheat software called Byfron. And it made tampering with the game harder than ever.

Soon after, hackers voiced their irritation in a Discord server when it prevented them from accessing the game entirely:

“FN will be down for a while. Fortnite after three years has decided to add s**t that will make it hard to cheat,” one hacker said. “They have greatly protected things that we need to make a cheat.”
“Before this update nothing was protected, now everything is.”

Epic is now protecting Fortnite with three layers of anti-cheat software: EasyAntiCheat, Battle Eye, and Byfron.

Detecting the Cheaters

One of Epic’s latest moves is to remove players that use tools to conceal or alter their device’s hardware IDs. These hardware IDs are used to track the parts of a computer a player uses with Epic Games. Thus, anybody hiding it is in almost all cases banned from Fortnite or is up to no good.

Unfortunately, soft hacks are being replaced with hardware hacks to avoid being detected in the first place.

Some players are now using a device called Cronus Zen. It’s a new, advanced take on those old SNES controllers with turbo buttons. It acts as an emulator that can run custom mods for game controllers. The mods improve building and take aim assist to the next level.

Protecting Yourself with a VPN in Fortnite

Using a VPN is an effective way to preserve your online privacy and protect yourself from malicious players. It hides your IP address and by doing so it eliminates the possibility of other players using tools to find it.

The catch is Epic Games doesn’t recommend using a VPN in Fortnite. This is because players with banned IP addresses use VPNs to access the game.

You could get this popup message from Epic Games if you have a VPN enabled, “You were removed from the match due to internet lag, your IP or machine, VPN usage, or for cheating. We recommend not utilizing VPN or proxy services while attempting to play Fortnite.”

For many, the benefits outweigh the possibility of getting removed from matches. See LetMeBy’s reviews of the top VPNs to learn more.

Conclusion

Online multiplayer games will always have cheaters. They’ve been around since the early days in games like Doom and Unreal Tournament.

They’ve infested plenty of titles over the years such as the multiplayer in old versions of Call of Duty. Epic Games has a monumental task on its hands. But they’ll be willing to keep it up as long as Fortnite is a cash cow for Epic.