Hardware cheats are becoming more popular - and a bigger problem
Hardware cheats haven’t always been so controversial. Originally used to let players personalise controllers, devices like Cronus also provided a solution for players and pros with disabilities, to maximise their gaming experience.
Number of script downloads for popular game titles
However, with the increasing popularity of online esports tournaments, devices like the Cronus Zen, Titan products, XIM and Strikepack controllers are gaining notoriety.
Although not technically hacking, as the devices don’t access or modify a game’s files, they do provide an unfair advantage to gamers over their opponents. In other words, they help them cheat.
As this menu (below) from the Cronus Zen website shows, the list of features & number of games supported has exponentially increased over recent years, with the most popular being anti-recoil for FPS Gamers. Unsurprisingly you won’t find the word ‘cheat’ on their site
So, why are more gamers opting for hardware cheats? One clear and obvious reason is they’re harder for security teams to spot as they don’t interfere with a game’s software, so are much harder to accurately detect. But there’s more to it than that.
Accessibility & Safety
Hardware cheats are also easier to use; no monthly subscriptions, safe to set up, and designed to work on consoles. As a result they’ve broadened the market for cheats and affect more games.
Devices like the Cronus Zen provide online libraries of customised scripts created by advanced users, combined with tutorials & support forums are major factors in these devices reaching a mass market.
Popularity
As more players, including pros, are perceived to be using them, a growing sense of “if you can’t beat them, join them’ draws more and more gamers to cheating - often for the first time.
Cronus Discord members recently quadrupled
Fortnite is the perfect example as the results of online tournaments are questioned and videos on YouTube reveal how some pros fare much worse at in-person LAN Tournaments.
Beyond shooters
Whilst hardware cheats are still dominated by scripts for FPS’s, other games are under threat as scripts for skills and generating virtual currency becomes available.
Taking control
Combatting hardware cheaters requires real-time threat intelligence; accessing cheat communities to understand when and where new scripts are released; testing the cheat to understand how it works and can be stopped, and gathering evidence for legal action.
Find out more at www.intorqa.gg
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