Security
DDoS Attacks Are A Growing Threat In Gaming
The cybercriminals behind the attacks have a variety of different motives, from extorting money from gaming companies to causing reputation damage to preventing competing players from winning out of competitiveness.
Imagine you’re about to get a Victory Royale in Fortnite, score a deciding goal in FIFA, or defuse the bomb in Counter-Strike when suddenly a message appears on your screen, informing you that you’ve been disconnected.
Wasting no time, you load the game again and discover that a connection can’t be established. Why? Because either you or the game’s servers are under a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
Such attacks are a growing threat in gaming, and we at Tech Magazine had the opportunity to discuss them with Emad Fahmy, Systems Engineering Manager Middle East at NETSCOUT. Here’s what we learned.
What Are DDoS Attacks In Gaming?
DDoS attacks are a type of cybercrime that makes resources unavailable by overloading the network across which they are transmitted with malicious requests. DDoS attacks first appeared in 2010 amid the rise of “hacktivism,” but they have evolved significantly since then, as observed in the NETSCOUT Threat Intelligence Report H2 2021.
Emad Fahmy, Systems Engineering Manager Middle East @ NETSCOUT
”In gaming, DDoS attacks might be directed at a single user or an entire organization,” explains Fahmy. “While an attack on a single user only affects them by slowing down their gaming experience, an attack on an organization can have a greater impact on the game’s entire user base, resulting in a group of disgruntled players who no longer have access to the game or have had their experience significantly slowed.”
The cybercriminals behind the attacks have a variety of different motives, from extorting money from gaming companies to causing reputation damage to preventing competing players from winning out of competitiveness.
Anyone Can Launch A DDoS Attack
To successfully launch a DDoS attack against a game or its players, attackers need to send so many malicious requests at the same time that the victim can’t possibly answer them all without becoming overloaded.
These requests are typically sent by bots, hacked devices (computers, routers, IoT appliances, and so on) that do what attackers tell them to do. Even a relatively small network of bots, or botnet for short, can be used to launch a massive DDoS attack.
These days, attackers don’t even have to hack vulnerable devices to obtain the DDoS firepower they need to take a target down. They can simply take advantage of DDoS-for-Hire services, which provide DDoS attacks ranging from no cost to greater than $6,500 for terabit-class attacks, according to the NETSCOUT report.
“DDoS-for-Hire services have made attacks easier to launch. We examined 19 DDoS-for-Hire services and their capabilities that eliminate the technical requirements and cost of launching massive DDoS attacks. When combined, they offer more than 200 different attack types,” says Fahmy.
Preventing DDoS Gaming Attacks
In 2021 alone, NETSCOUT recorded 9.7 million DDoS attacks, an increase of 14 percent compared with 2019. To reverse this gloomy trend, both gaming companies and gamers themselves need to take it seriously and adopt specific measures to protect themselves.
“Relying on firewalls and intrusion detection systems is no longer sufficient. This is because DDoS attacks can now manipulate or destroy them. Despite advances in cloud-based detection, the company’s Internet Service Provider (or Managed Security Service Provider) may still struggle to identify threats that wait in the shadows until it is too late,” explains Fahmy. “As a result, an on-premises DDoS risk management solution is critical,” he adds.
Individual gamers, especially eSports players and streamers, can make it harder for cybercriminals to aim DDoS attacks at them using a virtual private network (VPN) service like ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, or NordVPN. Such services channel users’ traffic through their servers, hiding its real origin in the process.
In addition to hiding their IP addresses, gamers should also adhere to cybersecurity best practices. Examples include timely installation of software updates and exercising caution when browsing the web, chatting online, or reading emails.
Conclusion
DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service attacks, represent a serious threat to the gaming industry because they can compromise the gaming experience and expose developers to the risk of brand damage and potential extortion. DDoS attacks have evolved and become far more sophisticated in recent years. Fortunately, the same can be said about on-premises DDoS risk management solutions that gaming companies use to protect themselves.
Security
10 Best VPN Services For The Middle East In 2022 (Free & Paid)
The VPN services recommended in this article can solve many of the issues experienced by those who are living or visiting the Middle East, including internet censorship, geo-restrictions, and online privacy concerns.
Internet censorship in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and other Middle Eastern countries is so widespread that there’s an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to it.
Fortunately for those who are living or visiting the Middle East, there are many VPN services that make it possible to enjoy unrestricted access to the internet even in countries where certain online content is blocked.
To help you select the best VPN service for the Middle East in 2022 and beyond, we’ve tested many popular VPN services and narrowed them down to the top 10 best options.
What Is A VPN And How Does It Work?
The acronym VPN stands for “virtual private network,” a special private network that extends across the public internet, creating an encrypted tunnel for your data to go through. Nobody outside this tunnel, including your internet service provider (ISP) and government monitoring agencies, can’t see what you’re doing online.
The easiest way to establish a VPN connection is to use an online VPN service, such as those recommended in this article. VPN services have servers in many countries around the world (the Middle East region is no exception), and they provide client applications that enable users to connect to them with a simple click.
Why Use A VPN In The Middle East?
We’ve already touched upon what’s arguably the main reason to use a VPN service in the Middle East: internet censorship.
Indeed, some online content is not accessible in many Middle Eastern countries. Examples of commonly blocked content include gambling websites, pornographic sites, news sites, social media platforms, or anti-Islam, anti-government, and anti-censorship sites.
Besides internet censorship, people living in the Middle East also frequently use VPN services to do things like:
- Enhance Their Privacy: A reliable VPN makes it impossible for third parties to monitor your online activity and see which websites you’ve visited and which files you’ve downloaded. This is true even when you’re connected using a public Wi-Fi network that’s not encrypted.
- Access Geo-Restricted Content: Many streaming services and even news websites geo-restrict some or all of their content to make it available only to users who are located in certain countries. With a VPN, you can circumvent such restrictions by making it seem as if you’re located in a different country.
- Work Remotely: Remote work is becoming increasingly prevalent, but so are the threats all remote workers face, such as man-in-the-middle attacks. A VPN is a must-have cybersecurity solution for all remote workers who don’t always enjoy the peace of mind provided by a trusted enterprise network.
- Play Online Games: Would you like to play an online game that’s not available to players who are located in the Middle East? That’s not a problem if you have one of the best VPN services for gaming.
- Hide Their Real Location: Your real IP address can be easily used to reveal your location. If that’s something you’re not comfortable with, then you should use a VPN service to hide it.
As you can see, the reasons to use a VPN service in Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates are numerous, but determining which VPN service is the best can be a challenge.
How To Choose The Best VPN For The Middle East?
Selecting the best VPN for use in the Middle East is somewhat complicated by the fact that some countries, like Iran, regulate VPN usage and don’t allow all VPN services—only government-approved ones. That’s why this article doesn’t recommend just one VPN service but ten.
Once you have found a couple of VPN services that work in your country, you should consider the following criteria to determine which of them can meet your needs the best:
- Servers: Ideally, you want to choose a VPN service that has servers all over the globe because then you can circumvent any geo-restrictions. Since many online services in the Middle East work only with a local IP address, your VPN service should have at least one server in the country where you live.
- Performance: You don’t want your VPN service to make it impossible for you to enjoy any slightly more bandwidth-intensive content because of its poor performance. The good news is that all leading providers make performance one of their top priorities.
- Security: The best VPN services don’t log any user data, implement state-of-the-art encryption, and use automatic kill switch functionally with DNS leak protection to ensure that no private data gets leaked.
- Location: The location of a VPN service provider matters a lot because it determines its legal obligations. What’s more, the so-called Fourteen Eyes countries (the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, and Spain) have intelligence-sharing agreements that may be used to obtain information about VPN users.
- Price: It goes without saying that the price of a VPN service is one of the most important selection criteria. We recommend you set a clear budget a stick to it. It’s also a good idea to look for special discounts, especially around major shopping holidays.
With these criteria in mind, we’ve researched the best VPN Middle East services to help you make the right choice. Let’s take a look at them!
Best VPN Services For The Middle East
Each of the top 10 best VPN services described below can be recommended to Middle Easterners who want to circumvent government censorship, enhance their privacy, access geo-restricted content, work remotely, play online games, or hide their real location.
Note: The prices below are those in effect at the time of writing this article, and they may include temporary discounts.
NordVPN
💵 Pricing: $5.29 a month (with a two-year commitment)
↩️ Money-Back Guarantee: 30 days
NordVPN is one of the most popular VPN services in the world, and not just because of how heavily it is advertised on sites like YouTube. The service actually does deliver on its promise of state-of-the-art security and privacy that don’t require you to sacrifice your download and upload speed.
The users of NordVPN can choose from more than 5,000 fast servers in dozens of countries around the world, including the United Arab Emirates. Unfortunately, access to such a large network of VPN servers doesn’t come cheap, but at least you get a lot of free extras, including malware protection, a password manager, and 1 TB of encrypted cloud storage, among other things.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| – Fantastic performance | – More expensive than alternatives |
| – Intuitive apps for all major platforms | |
| – A huge number of servers | |
| – Great customer service | |
| – Diskless server infrastructure | |
| – 1 TB of free encrypted cloud storage |
ExpressVPN
💵 Pricing: $8.32 a month (with a one-year commitment)
↩️ Money-Back Guarantee: 30 days
ExpressVPN is the most expensive VPN service recommended in this article (unless you’ll get lucky and stumble upon a nice discount), so it must be really good, right? Correct! ExpressVPN has servers in Egypt and Israel (and over 90 other countries), and it’s known for its excellent P2P and streaming support.
Setting up ExpressVPN on a smartphone, tablet, computer, or router is painless thanks to the large library of official client apps and browser extensions. Just know that the service (and many others like it) is owned by Kape Technologies, a digital security software provider that has done some shady things in the past.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| – Great P2P and streaming support | – More expensive than alternatives |
| – Helpful customer support | – Owned by Kape Technologies |
| – Speedy refund process | |
| – Independently audited |
CyberGhost
💵 Pricing: $2.19 a month (with a two-year commitment)
↩️ Money-Back Guarantee: 45 days
CyberGhost stands out with its industry-leading 45-day money-back guarantee, giving you plenty of time to evaluate its performance and usability. The service provides native client apps for all major platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Linux. Routers, smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV Sticks, and game consoles are also supported.
At the time of writing this article, CyberGhost operates nearly 10,000 servers in 91 countries, including Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. In September 2022, the service finally completed an independent audit, and it can certainly be proud of the results.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| – Industry-leading money-back guarantee | – Owned by Kape Technologies |
| – Inexpensive | |
| – Constantly growing server network | |
| – A huge number of servers |
Private Internet Access
💵 Pricing: $2.03 a month (with a three-year commitment)
↩️ Money-Back Guarantee: 30 days
Private Internet Access is another popular VPN owned by Kape Technologies, and it has WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2/IPSec servers in Egypt and more than 80 other countries, including all 50 US states.
The service provides dedicated IP addresses to those who would like to enjoy a smoother online experience with fewer interruptions. With a dedicated IP address, you won’t be constantly running into CAPTCHAs and bot checks.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| – Inexpensive | – Average speeds |
| – Audited by a third-party | – Owned by Kape Technologies |
| – Supports ten simultaneous connections | |
| – Provides dedicated IP addresses |
VyprVPN
💵 Pricing: $5.00 a month (with a one-year commitment)
↩️ Money-Back Guarantee: 30 days
With servers in Bahrain, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, VyprVPN is an excellent choice for Middle Easterners who want to improve their online security and privacy while retaining a local IP address.
The service does a great job of circumventing various VPN-blocking techniques, and it uses the WireGuard protocol for hassle-free streaming. These and other perks justify its somewhat higher price.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| – Can circumvent VPN blocking | – More expensive than alternatives |
| – Great P2P and streaming support | – Not many servers |
| – Owns its entire server infrastructure | |
| – Many servers in the Middle East |
Surfshark
💵 Pricing: $2.30 a month (with a two-year commitment)
↩️ Money-Back Guarantee: 30 days
If you can excuse the fact that Surfshark is located in the Netherlands, which is part of the Fourteen Eyes intelligence-sharing group, then this VPN service should definitely be high on your list because it offers a lot of value for a great price.
All Surfshark plans can support an unlimited number of connections, which means that you could theoretically secure each and every device you own for just $2.30 a month—and that’s certainly a great deal. The service also boasts 3,200+ servers in 100 countries, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| – Inexpensive | – Located in the Netherlands |
| – Unlimited simultaneous connections | |
| – Servers in multiple Middle Eastern countries |
PureVPN
💵 Pricing: $1.99 a month (with a two-year commitment)
↩️ Money-Back Guarantee: 31 days
With prices that start at just $1.99 a month, you would be hard-pressed to find a cheaper VPN service that’s as reputable as PureVPN. Despite its low price, the service operates a massive network of more than 6,500 servers, including servers in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Up to 10 people can use PureVPN to secure an unlimited number of devices with AES 256-bit encryption at the same time. Some advanced features, like split tunneling, are included in the price, while others, such as port forwarding and dedicated IP addresses, are available as paid add-ons.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| – Supports ten simultaneous connections | – Occasional client issues |
| – Verified no data logging policy | |
| – Inexpensive |
PrivateVPN
💵 Pricing: $2.00 a month (with a three-year commitment)
↩️ Money-Back Guarantee: 30 days
It’s common for the best VPN services in the Middle East to use 256-bit encryption algorithms, but PrivateVPN takes security to the next level with its military-grade 2048-bit encryption. While the extra bits don’t make much difference in the real-world, they show just how committed PrivateVPN is to protecting its users.
What’s also unique about this VPN service is the fact that it doesn’t outsource customer support at all. Instead, all customers get to talk directly with its in-house developers to get their problems solved quickly and easily. PrivateVPN has a few servers in Israel, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, but its server network is on the smaller side.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| – Inexpensive | – Not many servers |
| – Unblocks streaming services | |
| – Military-grade 2048-bit encryption | |
| – In-house customer support |
ProtonVPN
💵 Pricing: $4.99 a month (with a two-year commitment); free plan available
↩️ Money-Back Guarantee: 30 days
If the name of this VPN service sounds familiar, then there’s a good chance that you’ve used ProtonMail, a secure email service that uses end-to-end encryption. As you’ve probably guessed, ProtonVPN and ProtonMail share the same developer, Proton AG. They also share the same focus on security, privacy, and freedom.
ProtonVPN offers a free VPN service that people who are living or visiting the Middle East can use to 100+ servers in 3 countries (US, NL, JP). To unlock all servers and locations ProtonVPN has to offer (almost 2,000 servers in over 60 countries), including Israel and the United Arab Emirates, you need to purchase the Proton VPN Plus plan.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| – Provided by a trusted and respected company | – Doesn’t offer browser extensions |
| – Nicely designed client | |
| – Free plan available |
Mullvad
💵 Pricing: €5.00 a month (no commitment)
↩️ Money-Back Guarantee: 30 days
VPN services tend to follow the same template: offering more or less the same features and the same customer experience. Mullvad is a welcome breath of fresh air that does away with pricing plans that force you to make a long commitment just to get a nice discount. Instead, there’s just one plan, and you can stop paying whenever you want.
As such, Mullvad is great if you need a VPN for just a month or two, but it’s harder to recommend to those who rely on a VPN every day. That’s especially true since it doesn’t have many servers in the Middle East (only a few in Israel and the United Arab Emirates). What’s more, the client app leaves something to be desired in terms of usability.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| – Fair pricing model | – More expensive than alternatives |
| – Transparent and highly anonymous | – Pay-as-you-go only |
| – Open-source | – Can’t unblock streaming services |
How To Set Up A VPN For Use In The Middle East?
You don’t need to be a networking expert to set up a VPN for use in the Middle East. You just need one of the recommended VPN services and a few minutes of free time.
Let’s demonstrate how it works using our personal favorite VPN service in the Middle East, NordVPN:
- Go to: https://nordvpn.com/risk-free-vpn/
- Click the Start Now button and choose one of the available plans.
- Create an account and pay for the selected subscription plan.
- Download the NordVPN client app for your device and install it.
- Launch the NordVPN client and log in to your account.
You can now connect to any NordVPN server. To see if your connection is protected, you can visit the NordVPN website and look at the status bar at the very top. If everything is working correctly, then you won’t see your real IP address.
Conclusion
The best VPN services recommended in this article can solve many of the issues experienced by those who are living or visiting the Middle East, including internet censorship, geo-restrictions, and online privacy concerns. Just remember to use them responsibly and in adherence with to local laws. If you’re looking for VPN options for your Android device, check out our list of the top 3 VPN services for Android.
FAQs
In countries like Bahrain, Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Qatar, VPN usage is completely unregulated. Countries like Iran allow only certain government-approved VPNs, while Iraq bans VPN usage entirely.
Sadly, not all VPN services work in every Middle Eastern country. In Iran, for example, only government-approved VPNs are allowed.
You technically can use a VPN to visit any website you want, but that doesn’t mean you should. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, you can get into some serious trouble if you use a VPN to visit banned websites.
The best VPN services in the Middle East are:
– NordVPN
– ExpressVPN
– CyberGhost
– Private Internet Access
– VyprVPN
Yes, there are free VPN services in the Middle East, such as the one that comes with the Opera web browser, but such services are often not as secure, fast, and feature-complete as their paid counterparts, so we recommend you avoid them.
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