Making skin trading more secure
How the inconveniences of online trading translate to game-related services — and how to counter-strike against them.
We could start this article with a whole hailstorm of cliches fed to the modern-day reader about the expansion of online trading in all shapes and forms. It all comes down to the facts of life — the Internet is a platform that proxies most traditional goods and services, and supports a new world of digital goods trading with all its variants and niches. Even more so, the two worlds have started to blend in unexpected ways.
E-commerce is conditioned by the information technology and the average performance of the most accessible device’s specifications. This means that it is processed through a certain set of solutions that have their limitations. Fortunately, a little consideration goes a long way.
Skinwallet is devoted to user safety, and it’s our heartfelt need to to raise awareness of those who consider trading online. Both third-party services and end traders are in the same team against the petty inconveniences of financial services provided via the Internet.
We’ll do our best to funnel the notions of Internet safety into a preferable skin trading process.
The digital trade premise
For most adults and young adolescents, having a functional email address is a triviality. It is a gateway to using any other online service, including online banking (although they obviously need some other electronic identification method, too). Having a memorable, yet unobvious password is more than a trope right now. Keeping your credentials confidential is crucial.
Whether you’re using a mobile trading app, a stock exchange interface, or a digital goods marketplace, you also need to keep your credentials safe. As simple as it might sound, it’s more than just exposing a couple of your emails or some private information.
While users can sometimes trivialize the importance of keeping any account in any financially conditioned service safe, one needs to be aware of what is at stake. For a casual trader, changing some ingame winnings into extra pocket money, the matter might be of lesser concern. However, the stakes might rise fast, even in hobby-related and casual niches of the market.
Why so much pressure on the user’s own, premeditated prevention? Mostly because service providers are doing literally everything the accessible technology allows them to to secure their side of the deal. How? Let’s look closer at the examples from our own field.
No Steam leakage
Half of the steady cruise is in the hands of the provider, and the other half depends on user responsibility. When it comes to Valve Co., they’ve made sure that all the precautions are taken up on their side.
Your Steam account safety is protected by a number of methods and good practices promoted by their security policy. The most important are those that include your agency to fulfill, namely two-factor authentication (2FA for short) and Steam Guard, which is an app that provides a mobile authentication token.
2FA ensures that no action is undertaken by just providing your email address. Account authorisation, changing password or changing payment settings require a confirmation from a link sent to your email account.
Mobile authentication token provides a cyclically changing five-character code that, once activated in the account’s security settings, is required to log in to Steam. This process is required of users by Valve to be able to trade on Steam Community Market. Also, before you start trading, the feature needs to be active for at least a full week.
Digital stall safety
Besides going to the sheer Steam interface and dealing with singular items, Valve allows you to use an API key to handle the transactions remotely. This comes in really handy when you’re dealing with bigger volumes of items, allowing external interfaces to automatise mass trades and sales.
It should be absolutely self-explanatory that protecting the confidentiality of this API key is crucial to the safety of any assets you’re processing through it. Fortunately, even in case of critical problems, API keys can be revoked and generated anew, just like email passwords or online banking passphrases.
Following the footsteps of all reputable services, and giving every checked solution its own quality assurance, Skinwallet uses the most renowned methods to ensure no data leakage of registered users. Whether you’re selling your skins in mass deposit, or using our SW Market to trade skins back and forth, you’re constantly informed about the safest way of proceeding. In case of doubts or questions, our support team is ready to explain every step of the process and advise the safest practices.
Let’s watch each other’s back
The idea of a community watch is coming back up in many areas of modern life, and it might prove immeasurably useful to both the traders and the trading platforms (or any other services in that field).
On the side of a service provider, a transparent process with constant monitoring and a notification system that lets users know whenever any decision-making is needed serves to ensure you that any anomalies will be spotted as fast as possible.
At the same time, it’s priceless if users willingly engage in communication with the provider, clarifying any doubts and making sure that they’re doing everything the intended way. Truly, the average support desk would rather answer three “what’s next?” emails than try to combat a “it’s been a week and I’m still at sea” scenario.
Even more so, with an interactive community of users, any reports of unusual behavior of other users, or suspicions of interference with one’s individual trading process should be telegraphed to the administrators or providers. Double checking never hurt anyone!
The safe takeaway
Depending on the services you use and the activities you undertake, security might get into more nuance. Nevertheless, secure trading comes down to these:
- keeping your credentials safe from exposure
- keeping your access keys confidential and generating them anew whenever necessary
- duly following the guidelines of each service
- reporting any suspicious activity
With the growing importance of digital trading, Skinwallet hopes for a bright tomorrow with common cybersecurity and a wholesome online society of gamers and traders.
