Why game companies can't block cheat tools

Anti-cheat software creates a multimillion-dollar underground economy despite efforts by game developers to stop it.

A model of a game controller. Photo: Bloomberg .

Software that allows you to see through walls, automatically aim at opponents (aimbot), and maximize character stats... is part of a multi-million dollar underground economy that specializes in providing cheating tools for popular computer games.

According to Wired , a group of computer scientists from the University of Birmingham (UK) spent 2 years researching the game cheating tool distribution market, observing the behavior that causes players to be banned as well as the effectiveness of anti-cheat systems from developers.

The results showed that 80 websites providing cheat software earned a total of 12.8-73.2 million USD /year, equivalent to 1.1-6.1 million USD /month. The research was presented in early August at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas (USA).

Legal gray area

The researchers estimated that between 30,000 and 174,000 people buy cheat software each month on websites. However, this does not reflect the full scale because the study only analyzed websites in North America and Europe, and did not include users of free software.

In addition to websites, cheats are also distributed via Discord, forums, or smaller groups. They work by injecting code into the game's internal processing, or by analyzing screen content and manipulating game mechanics in ways that aren't allowed. Some sophisticated tools even require additional hardware.

The market for cheating software has grown in recent years, said study co-author Dr. Sam Collins.

“They look like professionally run online stores,” Collins said. Some sites require a one-time payment, while many offer monthly or 90-day rentals, promising ongoing updates and technical support.

An experience booth at the Gamescon 2023 exhibition. Photo: Bloomberg .

As of the end of 2023, the minimum price for a game cheat tool on the website is 6.63 USD , the most expensive is 254.28 USD . Some websites have their own customer care process, accepting some popular payment services.

“The support staff are pretty professional. They don’t mind being rude if they don’t like you, but they still try to be professional,” Collins said. The key to cheating software is how long it works.

It's part of a never-ending battle between cheat tool developers and game companies, which pay to develop anti-cheat software to curb nefarious behavior in games.

“This is a legal grey area because distributing cheat software is not illegal in many countries,” said Tom Chothia, professor of cybersecurity at the University of Birmingham, noting that China and South Korea are the only countries where the use of game cheats is illegal.

The never-ending war

Andrew Hogan, co-founder of Intorqa, a company that provides game cheat data to game developers, stressed that cheat tools are always improving to become more sophisticated, trying to bypass anti-cheat systems.

Many anti-cheat software websites proudly claim that their tools are “tested daily.” Another site emphasizes that its cheat system is “undetectable,” even encouraging players to customize it to suit their needs.

While cheat and anti-cheat tools are getting more sophisticated, Hogan says an old cheating technique (called pixelbots) is making a comeback in the form of AI-aimbots. They essentially read what’s on the screen and automatically target opponents. Now, developers are incorporating computer vision to make it more effective.

“Developers can create them more easily and quickly using machine learning, AI, and object detection programs,” Hogan added.

Over time, the popularity of cheats and the money they make has attracted cybercriminals and scammers. In recent years, thousands of government and university websites around the world have been hacked to promote deals in Roblox or Fortnite , but are actually used to spread malware and steal personal information.

A complex hardware system used for the aimbot tool. Photo: Kamal Carter .

When old cheating and anti-cheating methods were ineffective, the two sides turned to interfering with the kernel, the core framework of a computer's operating system.

Deploying at the kernel, the deepest level of the operating system, creates risks of system crashes, security vulnerabilities, and privacy. For example, Crowdstrike has kernel access. The software caused millions of computers to shut down last year.

In April, Elise Murphy, director of game security at Electronic Arts, said the company's anti-cheat systems had blocked 33 million cheats since its 2022 release.

“The kernel is the deepest part of the operating system. If the cheat software is running there while the anti-cheat software is not present, the software can hide all actions, making it impossible for us to detect or prevent any behavior,” Murphy emphasized.

Kernel-level access also makes anti-cheat software more effective, even when blocking cyberattacks, according to researchers at the University of Birmingham.

“We found that your laptop can be the safest when playing Fortnite . The anti-cheat tool actually protects your computer from a lot of malware that your regular antivirus will miss,” Chothia said.

Source: https://znews.vn/nen-kinh-te-ngam-hang-trieu-usd-cua-the-gioi-game-post1577065.html