Back to Blog

2FA For Your Own Minecraft Server

MinecraftProtectedByAuthy

In October I had the pleasure of heading across town to GamesBeat 2015, a brilliant conference initiated by VentureBeat, considered one of the ‘best blogs on the web’ by The New York Times. VentureBeat is a leading source for technology innovation news, events, research and perspective, and their GamesBeat conference, now in its 7th year, takes those attributes and focuses them on tech trends in the gaming industry.

So when Authy was invited to participate in GamesBeat 2015, we were pumped. It’s not every day when business and pleasure mix so fluidly. At Authy, we help online brands secure their data and protect their customers by making it super easy to incorporate two-factor authentication into their service offering. But we’re also gamers at heart, so whenever a gaming platform amps up their level of security, we’re more apt to initiate gameplay.  

Gamers Losing Trust?

Thanks to the rise of virtual economies in gaming sites, hackers are hot for gamers and game developers. Gaming profiles are selling for thousands of dollars on the black market. But it’s Multi-player games, and the $11 billion in annual revenues they produce, that are the prime targets of cyber criminals. The in-game currencies of multi-player titles, such as World of Warcraft gold, can be stolen, exchanged, and easily cashed in for real money, often in different countries, and without game developers even having a clue. Even if a company successfully restores stolen assets, and/or succeeds in prosecuting the actors responsible, this kind of violation is hard to overcome. The gamer loses trust in the game. And even after releasing a more secure version or new title, winning back that trust is never easy.

But It Doesn’t Need To Be That Way…

As gamers grow frustrated with endless data breaches they’re demanding more responsible stewardship from the companies that hold their data. While we all know that passwords don’t offer enough protection anymore—we also know that using a second factor to confidently verify a user’s’ identity will protect your players and your service from data loss, fraud, and malicious attacks. Two-factor authentication is a natural fit, especially in multi-user online games where players accumulate and trade value.  

Security With Just 10 Lines Of Code

Integrating two-factor authentication isn’t difficult—well, it is if you try to build it yourself.  That’s basically the gist of my presentation at GamesBeat 2015. Integrating Authy two-factor authentication is simple, powerful and reliable. And, with as little as 10 lines of code, you can almost immediately use two-factor authentication to:

  • Verify players at registration
  • Safely allow access during log-in
  • Secure high-value transactions or game progressions
  • And essentially any in-game activity you need to protect

Yes. Authy for Minecraft.

To illustrate the point, I set up two-factor authentication for Minecraft to show you how to use:

  • SMS or text-to-voice at log-in with Authy OneCode
  • One Time Passcode generation as player validation with Authy SoftToken
  • And for the best, least intrusive user experience, push notification with Authy One Touch, where all a player has to do is swipe their smartphone screen for access to in-game purchases or any action that might require added security.

Minecraft2FAPushNotification

Hackers are no longer just after end-user data. They’re after entire player communities and some are looking to take down out entire systems. If gaming developers integrate two-factor authentication across the board, individual gamers will be better protected, developer account data will be better secured, and brands would instill trust and loyalty amongst its player community.

As developers know, integrations between applications can often be a cumbersome development effort. With Authy, we worked hard to make sure it’s incredibly easy to use for any developer. The Authy REST API takes care of the tedious details like key management and secure data structuring. And you get 2 simple end-points and pre-built libraries to add security in your login flow with the language of your choice: PHP, Ruby, Python, Java, NodeJS & more.

If You’re A Developer:

Head to https://www.authy.com/developers/ to learn more. There you can get a free API key, try it out, and show us how you’ve integrated Authy #2FA.

About the author Simon Thorpe

Simon works in the product group at Authy and has over 15 years of experience in the security and identity management space. Working at companies like Oracle, Microsoft and Okta, he has spent a lot of time understanding and architecting solutions to secure all sorts of information. At Authy he works closely with the whole team to deliver a world class solution for developers to build security into their applications.

We can text you a link to get started:

Close