What can you do with a pickaxe and the ability to build? In the world of Minecraft, everything.
You can create the Hogwarts Castle from Harry Potter or join a MrBeast challenge and win tens of thousands of dollars. It’s a game for everyone. You can be anything from a simple farmer to a god in Creative Mode.
But it can all come to an end if you don’t make it bulletproof. Hackers and thieves are always up for getting their hands on your personal data. It’s up to you to protect it.
Why Do Hackers Care About Minecraft?
Hackers care about every app, game, or website with millions of users. Minecraft is one of the most popular games in existence, and it’s mainly directed at kids.
Children don’t pay too much attention to online security. They treat their email as something disposable, even though it’s linked to their personal data. Kids are the easiest targets for hackers and thieves. In 2016, more than 7 million accounts got compromised.
Sometimes, kids will even resort to hacking themselves. Somebody in a multiplayer server destroyed their building, and now it’s payback time.
You never know what the person on the other side of the screen is thinking or doing. It’s better to be safe than find out somebody laced your favorite building with a mysterious lever that detonates millions of TNT boxes.
How To Protect Your Minecraft Account?
Everything starts and ends with a simple password. It’s your last line of defense if somebody knows your email. That’s why you need to make it as secure as possible.
Include numbers, special characters, uppercase and lowercase letters, and make it longer than 12 characters. Even the best computers in the world will take a decade to crack such a password.
Make sure you have a different password for every account. You might have two or more Minecraft accounts. One for Survival and one for Creative Mode. But if you have the same password, they’re both at stake.
It’s like using the same key for your house and your car. You don’t want to make it easy for hackers. Get a password manager so you don’t have to remember every new combination for all of your accounts.
Two Factor Authentication
You might have noticed that almost every online service asks you to add two-factor authentication. Most of the time, it’s a hassle, but it’s super important. The 2FA method uses your phone, either through SMS or a code in an app, to confirm your login.
It takes several extra seconds, but it changes the entire game for hackers. Let’s say that you have a simple Minecraft password you created when you were ten years old. By now, you’ve integrated the movement for typing it into your muscle memory. Even if someone were to wake you from a dream, you’d type it in a second.
Well, when a hacker tries to get control over that account that has thousands of hours of effort, they’ll face a 2FA panel. They won’t be able to access it unless they have your phone. You get to mine another day.
Of all the multi-factor authentication methods, an app is the safest. SMS seems safe, but it’s not as good as the good old code-generator applications.
Spot Phishing Attacks
You’ve reached The End, and it’s finally time to beat the Ender Dragon. You try once, twice, and even three times, and you fail. Suddenly, you get an email in your account that you can crack Minecraft and get a full set of Diamond Armor, Sword, and Pickaxe. It’s the thing you need at the moment, and you click and download a file.
Instead of getting a new set of equipment, you just get a virus that freezes your computer. The file was filled with malware.
Phishing attacks in gaming are quite popular. You might try to download a mod, a free game, or an extension, but it’s always malware in disguise.
Never click on links that force you to act quickly or on links that somebody sends you in the chat.
Use a VPN
Most gamers don’t want to use VPNs because they think it will make their FPS drop and slow down the experience. That’s a myth. A VPN for Minecraft masks your IP address to hide it from hackers, and it can make your bandwidth faster.
How To Recover Your Hacked Minecraft Accounts?
If your Minecraft account is hacked, you need to act immediately. Log in to your main email and change the password. Check your recovery emails, phone numbers, and see if there’s any suspicious activity. If you don’t have it enabled, turn on 2FA.
After you’ve saved everything else, it’s time to focus on Minecraft. There are two scenarios if you can’t log in. The hacker changed only your password or your contact info along with your password.
If it’s just a password, go to the official Minecraft website and follow the steps just as if you forgot it.
If it’s your contact info, you need to contact Customer Support and send them an email. They will reply with the next steps you need to take.
If you’ve downloaded a virus, the solution is simple. Install an antivirus and remove all threats.
Usually, it takes several hours, up to a week, to get access to your account if you reach out to their Customer Support. But don’t let it get to that by making your Minecraft account bulletproof and keep it safe from hackers and thieves.