game-research

Hi there! 👋

This web page features information about our research on video games and their anti-cheats. Its currently still under construction, and updates will follow over time.

Presentations:

• BlackHat US’25: Watching the Watchers: Exploring and Testing Defenses of Anti-Cheat Systems. [Slides] - [Recording (TBD)]
• DefCon33 (2025): Playing Dirty Without Cheating - Getting Banned for Fun and No Profit [Slides] - [Recording (TBD)]

Academic Publications

• Sam Collins, Alex Poulopoulos, Marius Muench, and Tom Chothia. Anti-Cheat: Attacks and the Effectiveness of Client-Side Defences. Workshop on Research on offensive and defensive techniques in the context of Man At The End (MATE) attacks (CheckMATE ‘24). [Paper] [Code]

Media Coverage

Our work has been covered in several articles by several outlets, including:

• 08/25: Dark Reading: “Why Video Game Anti-Cheat Systems Are a Cybersecurity Goldmine”
• 08/25: TechSpot: “Study uncovers dark market making millions from video game cheats”
• 08/25: Wired: “Inside the Multimillion-Dollar Gray Market for Video Game Cheats”
• 11/24: TheVerge: “Valorant is winning the war against PC gaming cheaters”
• 10/24: TechXplore: “Windows kernel defenses aren’t enough to stop a lucrative game cheating market, research shows”
• 10/24: TheDebrief: “People Cheat in Online Games like Fortnite, Valorant, and Apex Legends, and Researchers Just Figured out How”