3 February 2022

Cyrex Hacking Roundup: February

Spring has sprung, but with the dawn of a new life comes a fresh wave of hackers and cheaters. To keep your business both secure and in the loop, check out our latest hacking roundup and learn how to protect yourself from such dangerous attacks.

The endless battle between hacker collectives and security systems meant to prevent such attacks rages on, and as always, we thought it was necessary to keep you updated with our newest entry in the hacking roundup series. Discover the latest news, what might be threatening your business and how to avoid future attacks. Your security is our priority!

BitMart – $196 million stolen in December 2021

Starting with some non-gaming related news, cryptocurrency exchange platform Bitmart, suffered a staggering $196 million loss just a few weeks ago. Hackers were able to breach the security of two hot wallets belonging to the BitMart crypto exchange, all thanks to a stolen private key.

According to reports, BitMart had promised full reimbursement to the platform-wide $196 million hack victims. However, it remains unclear how BitMart plans to reimburse all affected users, with many users still waiting for their reimbursement and response.

PUBG Mobile Cheat Makers Ordered to Pay $10 Million in Damages

In a lawsuit filed against a "hacker organization" that produced and disseminated hacks for the game, PUBG Mobile maker Krafton was granted about £7.3 million ($10 million) in damages. Additionally, the organization has been required to submit information about how they were able to exploit the game in the first place, as well as to discontinue any future criminal acts involving game cheating.

After the US and German federal courts ruled in favor of the publishers, Tencent Games and Krafton, they also announced in a news release that any damage obtained would be used to develop anti-cheat technologies for PUBG Mobile. The game recently included a mechanism that prevents cheaters from playing the battle royale or registering a new account.

343 Industries Working Hard to Ban Hackers & Cheaters from Halo Infinite

As previously reported in our December Hacking Roundup, the latest entry in the universally loved Halo franchise, Halo Infinite, launched their game to critical success. However, it wasn’t all sunshine and daisies as players fell prey to a horde of hackers ambushing the online multiplayer across both Xbox and PC. Unfortunately, like with any PC multiplayer game, it was certain to attract a slew of hackers, especially because it was a freebie, and the fact anti-cheat software was never implemented made things easier to cheat and exploit vulnerabilities.

Fortunately, almost two months after launch, and after constant complaints from players, 343 community manager John Junyszek reassured fans that they’re “committed” to removing cheaters from the game and are already currently identifying and removing some of these cheaters. With a major anti-cheating update promised later this month, alongside a Big Team battles patch, Spartan fans remain cautiously optimistic. We’ll be keeping a close eye over the next couple of weeks to see if the team stays true to their word, and how they deal with whatever new obstacles they may face.

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