Cybersecurity as a Strategic Trend in 2025: Lessons from iGaming

Last year's  2025 iGaming Trends report by SOFTSWISS identified cybersecurity as one of the most important global trends shaping the future of the online gaming industry. The 2026 iGaming Trends report shows that this trend persists. Cybersecurity is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity. Let’s take a look at what operators can do.

The threat landscape is expanding and evolving. Traditional risks such as stolen player data, fraud, and DDoS attacks remain, but the centre of gravity has shifted towards identity-driven attacks.

Social engineering now targets supplier and operator-side employees to grant access or approve fraudulent transactions. Generative AI has lowered the barrier to entry, enabling less-skilled attackers to launch sophisticated campaigns using deepfakes, forged documents, and fake KYC checks. Recent industry surveys indicate that AI-driven cyberattacks increased by around 47% in 2025, resulting in global losses exceeding tens of billions.

In iGaming, cybersecurity is more than a protective measure; it strengthens player trust and sustains business resilience and integrity. In a landscape of constant threats, successful companies are those that can anticipate risks, respond swiftly, and maintain transparency when challenges arise.

Evgeny Zaretskov

Group Chief Information Security Officer at SOFTSWISS

Building Resilience for the 24/7 Economy

The iGaming sector, with its round-the-clock global operations, offers a blueprint for other industries facing similar challenges. At SOFTSWISS, a leading iGaming software provider, cybersecurity is a top priority. The company has built a 24/7 Security Operations Centre (SOC) designed to function continuously, ensuring no gaps in defence.

The SOC covers multiple in-house products, each with its own infrastructure, risk profile, and regulatory obligations. Rather than relying on expensive, monolithic enterprise solutions, SOFTSWISS structured its SOC around open-source, automation-first tools – gaining scalability, cost efficiency, and full control over security processes.

Automation is central to this approach. Repetitive alerts and false positives are filtered and enriched before reaching human analysts, allowing them to focus on the most serious incidents. In the event of a breach, the company deploys a cross-functional Cybersecurity Incident Response Team (CSIRT) to ensure rapid, coordinated action across infrastructure, applications, identity management, and communications.

Never cut corners on security. From the first day of operations, every company should build protection that matches its scale, market, and risks. It may look like a cost when nothing goes wrong, but one incident can bring losses far greater than the investment required to prevent them.

Artem Bychkov

Deputy CSO at SOFTSWISS

Strategic Takeaways for Operators

• Treat security as a strategic investment. Back it with verifiable practice: continuous security reporting, third-party attestations, red-team exercises, and a tested incident-readiness programme.
• Be always on and automate. Attackers automate – defenders must match. Prioritise API/WAF hardening, high-fidelity bot detection, and ongoing resistance to credential stuffing through leak intelligence – all integrated into risk-based payout controls.
• Harden the supply chain. Set a one-page baseline for partners (logs, EDR, MFA/SSO, key management, SBOM, incident plan) and mirror partner events into your telemetry to detect anomalies quickly.
• Design payouts with brakes. Treat withdrawal as a journey, not a button: implement tiered limits, holds, and secondary checks on risky routes or new devices, with dedicated flows for VIPs and affiliates.

Staying Ahead of AI-Powered Threats

As attackers harness AI to scale their operations, defenders must match speed with automation and precision. That means combining open-source adaptability, automation, and human expertise in a layered defence strategy. Go beyond the basics with an AI-ready defence stack:

1. Real-time session-risk scoring and behavioural biometrics to blunt automated account takeovers; 
2. Token binding and step-up authentication triggered by LLM-style risky signals (new device, new payout route, unusual velocity or language patterns); 
3. Model-driven detection of scripted agents across web and mobile; 
4. Deception assets to trap and profile bots; 
5. Rapid takedown pipelines linked to region-specific phishing infrastructure and domains; 
6. Continuous purple-team drills to validate controls against generative-attack playbooks.

Cybersecurity will remain one of the defining challenges and opportunities for iGaming and beyond. The upcoming fourth edition of the iGaming Trends report, published in partnership with NEXT.io, will provide the full picture of how this and other trends are reshaping the industry. To be among the first to access the insights and prepare your strategy for 2026, join the waitlist today.