Anyone who plays PUBG knows that the game has had a huge problem with cheaters. One of the biggest sources of cheat software comes from China. Tencent Holdings Ltd., the game’s distributor there, has been working together with local law enforcement for several months now trying to bring down a ring of hackers associated with creating apps that seek to give PUBG players an unfair advantage. A new report
In total, police seized over 200 pieces of hardware ranging from mobile phones, computers, and other devices during the arrest.
These arrests follow a recent crackdown starting from the beginning of the year. By the time Bloomberg published their piece on this in January, 120 arrests had already been made. In April, PUBG Corp. wrote a piece on Steam
The cheating software as well as the stolen information provides these hacking rings with a considerable stream of money. According to the article published by pubg.qq, hacking groups could expect to earn thousands of yuan every day. PUBG is one of the most popular games right now and these groups have clearly capitalized on its success.
In the Bloomberg article, Allen Zheng, one of the key Tencent minds behind Wechat, had this to say about the war being waged between hackers and software companies: “It’s a never-ending battle. You come up with something effective today, but encounter something completely different the next day.”