Security of Online Poker

Online poker has blossomed to a point where the online poker community now embraces an abundance of online poker sites and a worldwide player base in the millions. Naturally, security is a major concern for both online poker sites as well as online poker players. Players are often risking thousands of dollars and players are regularly winning thousands of dollars. The sheer volume of financial transactions taking place at any given online poker site is staggering. The online poker industry is now a multi-billion dollar industry. The other primary concern in terms of security for online poker sites and online poker players is account privacy. Players do not want just anyone to have access to their personal information. This is especially true due to the wave of identity theft and fraud that has been running rampant globally.

Banking Transactions

Online poker sites are now using the same security measures and encryption tools that are used by the banking industry. When players establish a connection with the online poker site, the connection is first secured and encrypted to avoid any type of infiltration. This is the same as when players login to their bank's website to utilize the popular method of online banking. Certain viruses or spyware can actually record the keystrokes of the user's login information for their online banking site before they login and establish a secure connection. Online poker sites use their own software that secures an encrypted connection upon launching the software, which is actually more secure than using your web browser to login to a bank's website.

Players should rest assured that the majority of the poker sites out there are using the industry standard 128-bit SSL encryption that is also used by banks. Some online poker sites are using a 256-bit TwoFish encryption algorithm for their security, which is even more secure than the standard 128-bit. Either which way, it would take some serious hacking to be able to crack a 128-bit encryption. Any computer user that was even remotely capable of such a task would most likely be going after bigger targets or would be offered a job working for an online security company.

Account Privacy

Online poker sites are now going through extreme measures to ensure that player's personal information remains private and secure. Employees within online poker sites will only have access to personal information that is relevant to their job title. This is the practice used by most online poker sites. For example, a cashier representative will have access to personal information needed to verify a player's identity when an inquiry has been submitted. Online poker sites have even went a step further with most claiming to have their servers containing personal information in separate areas of their offices, locked securely away from employee access. Only technical employees that absolutely need access to this area will be granted access and most online poker sites will closely monitor sensitive areas either through surveillance or some other means.