Pioneering cybersecurity services provider Cyrex’s latest venture will call on the hacking community to identify and exploit game-breaking vulnerabilities and security flaws in video games.
Cyrex has announced a major expansion of its gaming cybersecurity division as it looks to bridge the gap between game developers and cheaters (those exploiting in-game vulnerabilities), uniting them under a symbiotic cybersecurity banner. While cheaters have consistently been a thorn in the side of video game companies since the industry’s inception, their destructive potential has only increased as the industry shifts its focus more and more towards mass online connectivity. By some estimates, cheaters are responsible for $1 billion in lost revenue every year. As demands for increased online privacy grab headlines and chart the course for tech regulation around the world, the potential of video game cheaters to gain illicit access to IP assets or private player data is an ever-growing major concern for games developers operating in the online space.
Now, Cyrex will spearhead a bold new initiative to bring cheaters on-side with a platform designed to offer bounties to players who ethically hack video games, identifying these exploits on behalf of games developers. For the first time, developers will be able to switch their approach to dealing with cheaters and hackers from reactive to proactive, forming mutually beneficial relationships with professional hackers that allow them to stay one step ahead of harmful cheating efforts.
The platform will bring together developers and cheaters from all corners of the industry and form a community built around security. Partners of the initiative will green-light selected assets to be probed by registered bug hunters who comb for vulnerabilities, exploits and bypasses that undermine a game’s security. Forearmed with expert knowledge gathered by the very people their security is aimed at counteracting, developers will be able to introduce steadfast security implementations that stay one step ahead of the competition.
Cheaters will receive pay-outs for identifying reproducible vulnerabilities in video games that open them up to exploitation by malicious elements among the player base, threatening both developers’ profits and their players’ valuable data. The initiative will allow developers to cooperate with cheaters across all video game consoles, including mobile apps and browser games, as well as all developer clients such as launchers and online storefronts. Game-related applications like forums and management systems (often housing vast amounts of player information) will also be viable for bug bounties.
Cyrex is the first company to adapt this tried-and-tested approach to cybersecurity specifically for the video games industry, charting new ground and cementing the award-winning services company as a proactive and innovating leader in its field.
Cyrex is looking for partners to join with it in this precedent-setting new approach to video game cybersecurity. If you or your company are interested in being a part of the future of security solutions in the gaming industry, get in touch today to find out more about what you can do to ensure your games are secured from the latest and most dangerous threats that cheaters pose you and your players!