Anti-cheat in "Battlefield 6": "Secure Boot is not a miracle cure"

Over 300,000 cheat attempts were prevented in the Battlefield 6 beta. This was reported by the anti-cheat team from EA's “Battlefield” team in a forum entry. Users reported over 100,000 potential cheaters in the beta, which was playable for the first time last weekend.

In the fight against cheaters, “Battlefield 6” relies on Secure Boot: TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are a prerequisite for starting the program. UEFI Secure Boot is a security measure that must be activated in the BIOS. It is intended to protect against so-called bootkits – Malware variants that nest in the bootloader and launch before the operating system. Malware installed in this way is particularly difficult to detect by security software. Cheat programs can also exploit this mechanism.

Clips show cheaters in "Battlefield 6"

However, the beta weekend showed that there were still a few cheaters on the “Battlefield 6” maps. For example, clips viewed millions of times on social media show so-called wall hacks, in which game characters are also highlighted by walls. Cheaters therefore know where opponents are waiting for them at all times.

“I want to make it clear that Secure Book is not or should not be a miracle cure,” writes a member of EA's anti-cheat team in the forum entry. “With Secure Boot, you are helping us expand our arsenal. It's another barrier that makes it harder for cheat developers to create cheat programs and easier for us to detect them.”

Transparency in the fight against cheaters

The fight against cheaters is of fundamental importance for the developers of online games. If cheaters have too much leeway, it can spoil the fun for other players and cause servers to die out. If studios lose the battle, it can ruin their games. According to the developers, the online shooter “The Cycle,” for example, had to be shut down after the dominance of cheaters emptied the servers.

Public awareness is also part of the successful fight against cheaters: studios want to make it clear to their players that they take the problem seriously and are taking action. This has led to great transparency with anti-cheat measures in recent years.

“Anti-cheat is never finished,” writes EA in the forum. “It's a battlefield that is constantly evolving. What has worked for us in the past for other games doesn't necessarily work for all games.”

The first beta of “Battlfield 6” took place on August 9 and 10. There will be another round from August 14 to 17: anyone can take part.

(dahe)