In July this year, three teams were banned from the Philips OneBlade Battleground Mobile India Cup 2024. The reason? The teams were found to have adopted unauthorised and unethical practices that amounted to cheating. Gaming companies are not just tackling cheating alone. Ransomware attacks, like the public leak of Grand Theft Auto 6, credential thefts, and account takeovers, are some of the many other challenges faced in the online gaming world.
Cheating is not a recent problem in gaming. Even offline poker and rummy games had their fair share of cheaters and tricksters. This has even led to disputes among the participants. However, cheating in an online fantasy sports or rummy app is done remotely. It has to be handled by the gaming platform, which they are doing in a variety of manners.
The Seriousness of the Problem
Hackers typically steal vital and confidential information from gaming companies and use it as a ransom. The seriousness of this problem can be understood by taking such an incident under the microscope.
In 2023, Riot Games reported that hackers had stolen the source codes of two of its popular games, League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics, as well as the codes for one of its anti-cheat platforms. The hackers compromised the companyโs development environment through what was termed as a social engineering attack.
These types of attacks disrupt the โbuild environmentโ of the games and can result in data breaches in the subsequent days. The theft of the source codes is particularly alarming as it often leads to the emergence of new cheat codes.
As a response to the attacks, Riot Games went ahead and conducted an impact assessment, particularly on its anti-cheat platform. Remedial measures or fixes were put in place so that normal service could resume. For the benefit of the industry in general, major companies like Riot Games publish detailed reports disclosing the hacking techniques used, the area where the company observed control failure and remedial measures taken.
Addressing Cheating and Hacking
An Indian gaming company is now part of a $3.1 billion industry and no longer a low-key target for hackers. As the financial stakes rise higher, the attempts of cheating and hacking also increase. This is evident from a finding that 75% of gamers in India face a cyberattack on their gaming account. 29% of them even encounter unauthorised access to their account, while 35% have detected malicious software on a gaming device.
Apart from account hacking, cheaters also use cheat codes and hacks to gain unfair advantage in gameplay. They also use phishing scams, masquerading as official game support, to gain access to login credentials and other sensitive information.
Indian gaming companies use a variety of tools and resources to address these threats. This includes tools that test the source codes for known vulnerabilities and tools that analyse the application in runtime to identify threats that are not identified in the source code. They also employ ethical hackers to challenge the safety limits of the existing infrastructure. Besides, KYC compliances are in place on most leading gaming platforms to screen the entry of gamers into the ecosystem.
For gaming platforms, the monitoring of real-time fair play and data safety is key to ensuring the elimination of cheats. Popular rummy app, RummyTime has an internationally certified random number generator to administer its card shuffling system. The platform keeps the communication channels open at all times to address fair play concerns from rummy game participants. Like all leading gaming platforms in India, RummyTime is ISO-certified, and all payment gateways are PCI DSS compliant.
Also important is the need to remain abreast of the latest developments in technology and how to harness them for threat management.
Raising the Bar
The use of the latest technology offers a lot of promise in addressing hacking and cheating in online games. The decentralised nature of blockchain technology is making transactions much more secure and tamper-proof.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning models are being used to analyse gameplay patterns, identify cheating attempts, and take real-time measures. These tools can also identify the usage of bots during gameplay. Besides, existing measures like data encryption are vital in the safeguarding of sensitive information. Multi-factor authentication has also seen increased use due to the extra layer of protection it offers to gaming accounts.
Cheating can often originate from an unauthorised access and/or offshore location. The use of geolocation and IP monitoring is helping Indian gaming companies to curb fraudulent activities on their platforms.
One must note that many of these measures are also regulatory requirements under Indian laws.
Staying on Toes
Eliminating cybercrime is not just beneficial for gamers but is also in the best interest of gaming companies. 66% of consumers lose trust in companies that face a data breach. With the Indian gaming industry growing every day, gaming companies are upgrading themselves to maintain their market foothold.
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