Electronic Arts doesn’t want cheaters (or rather game makers) in their games. con Y coaches) and announced a new anti-cheat solution developed in-house by its engineers. We’ll have to wait to see how the potential security and privacy issues involved are covered it will work at the kernel level.

Under the name EA AntiCheat (EAAC), the distributor presents it as a “kernel mode anti-cheat and anti-tamper solution”. It will debut at the end of the year in the new FIFA 23, but will not be installed by default in all EA games. The company will evaluate it on a case-by-case basis.

“PC cheat developers have moved more and more into the core, so we need specific protections to ensure fair play”explains Elise Murphy, senior director of game security and anti-cheat at EA. “As players, it’s important to us to ensure that all anti-cheat cores included in our games work with a strong focus on the privacy and security of our PC players.”emphasizes.

Criticism for privacy and security

Declaration is mandatory. Anti-cheat systems at the kernel level have drawn criticism from privacy and security advocates, because the drivers used by these systems are so complex and run at such a high level that if there are any security issues, the developers have to fix them very quickly because the user is sold. And in the past, speed was not the standard.

EA says kernel-level protection does “absolutely vital” for competitive games like FIFA 23 because existing cheats work in that space. Because the games run in normal user mode, they cannot detect that manipulation or cheating is taking place.

“Unfortunately, in recent years there has been a huge increase in cheats and cheat techniques that work in kernel mode, so the only reliable way to detect and block them is to let our anti-cheat system work there.”explains Murphy.

AntiCheat EA will run at the kernel level, but only when playing a title that includes this protection. The company provides it the process will be closed after game completion and data collection will be limited. “EAAC does not collect any information about users’ browsing history, applications that are not connected to EA games, or anything that is not directly related to cheat protection.”assures the manager.

It must be said that anti-cheat systems at the kernel level are becoming more and more common. Activision released its own solution Ricochet custom in Call of Duty last year and other big Triple-A games often use them as well.

Privacy and security are hot topics in these advanced systems. They are also not impossible to hack and have not been without problems when running games. iD Software removed Denuvo Anti-Cheat from DOOM Eternal due to the havoc it wreaked on an excellent game. We will see the implementation of this EEAC.