Steamworks Documentation Features Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) and Game Bans VAC Integration Goals and methodology The goal of VAC is to strongly discourage users from using cheat software by both having strong penalties if a user is caught cheating, and by making it hard for the cheating community to know if a cheat is actively being detected.
Windows 10 Now Integrates Its Own Cheat-Detection Capabilities October 23, 2017 at 10:00 am
Microsoft is integrating its own cheat-detection system into Windows at the OS level. Will it make more of a difference than other anti-cheating systems have to-date?
Steam Banhammers More Than 40,000 People After its Summer Sale July 12, 2017 at 11:15 am
Valve's Summer Sale finished up earlier this month — and when it did, the company swung the largest banhammer in its history, exceeding the total number of banned players in a single day by nearly 4x.
Can this Arduino box stop online cheating in video games? February 24, 2015 at 9:13 am
Cheating has always existed in multiplayer games, and for the most part it's just a minor annoyance, but now that there are millions of dollars up for grabs at eSports tournaments, cheating has become a problem with much larger stakes. A man by the name of David Titarenco thinks he's solved part of the problem with a tiny little Arduino box he calls 'Game:ref.'
Valve: Trust us, our VAC anti-cheat software isn't interested in your porn-surfing habits February 18, 2014 at 12:10 pm
Over the weekend, it emerged that Valve's Anti-Cheat software (VAC) was scanning your computer's internet history and reporting a list of visited websites back to Valve. Obviously, the internet immediately entered a state of privileged outrage, spitting apoplectically and claiming that Valve was spying on our porn-surfing habits. According to Valve CEO Gabe Newell, though, who took to Reddit to officially respond to the claims, VAC does nothing of the sort — it does search your internet history, but it only looks for very specific markers left behind by certain cheats. Your surfing history is never sent to Valve, and they don't care about which porn sites you visit.
Valve doled out more than 40.000 bans on Steam, via Valve Anti-Cheat. The ban wave happened on July 6th, one day after the Steam Summer Sale wrapped up. This is the single biggest ban-hammer strike in the history of Steam; the largest before this was on October 12th, 2016, when a total of 15.000 accounts were banned.
Steam Games With Valve Anti Cheat System
The morning after the Steam Summer Sale wrapped up, on July 6th, Valve made a huge crack-down on cheaters. The Valve Anti-Cheat (or VAC, if you will), got rid of a grand total of 40.411 Steam accounts. If the number seems incredible, well, that's because it is. The Steam Database ban chart shows an unprecedented spike. This is, by far, the most radical ban wave on Steam ever. On a normal day, an average of 5.000 accounts get banned daily, and the biggest previous wave got rid of 'only' 15.000 accounts.
Valve Anti Cheat Ban List
The timing of the ban-hammer smashing down is probably very intentional, as Dot Esports pointed out. Losing an account is not necessarily the end of the world for your average cheater, since they can just make another. However, this ban hit them where it might actually hurt – the wallet. According to Vac Ban, over $9.000 dollars in inventory value went down the VAC drain. You see, the VAC ban blocks you from accessing Valve's servers, Rendering cosmetic items worthless, which is what makes up the most of the lost inventory. Best of all, considering the timing, there was no real way for them to get these items on the cheap again.
Steam Games With Valve Anti Cheat Memes
Windows 10 Now Integrates Its Own Cheat-Detection Capabilities October 23, 2017 at 10:00 am
Microsoft is integrating its own cheat-detection system into Windows at the OS level. Will it make more of a difference than other anti-cheating systems have to-date?
Steam Banhammers More Than 40,000 People After its Summer Sale July 12, 2017 at 11:15 am
Valve's Summer Sale finished up earlier this month — and when it did, the company swung the largest banhammer in its history, exceeding the total number of banned players in a single day by nearly 4x.
Can this Arduino box stop online cheating in video games? February 24, 2015 at 9:13 am
Cheating has always existed in multiplayer games, and for the most part it's just a minor annoyance, but now that there are millions of dollars up for grabs at eSports tournaments, cheating has become a problem with much larger stakes. A man by the name of David Titarenco thinks he's solved part of the problem with a tiny little Arduino box he calls 'Game:ref.'
Valve: Trust us, our VAC anti-cheat software isn't interested in your porn-surfing habits February 18, 2014 at 12:10 pm
Over the weekend, it emerged that Valve's Anti-Cheat software (VAC) was scanning your computer's internet history and reporting a list of visited websites back to Valve. Obviously, the internet immediately entered a state of privileged outrage, spitting apoplectically and claiming that Valve was spying on our porn-surfing habits. According to Valve CEO Gabe Newell, though, who took to Reddit to officially respond to the claims, VAC does nothing of the sort — it does search your internet history, but it only looks for very specific markers left behind by certain cheats. Your surfing history is never sent to Valve, and they don't care about which porn sites you visit.
Valve doled out more than 40.000 bans on Steam, via Valve Anti-Cheat. The ban wave happened on July 6th, one day after the Steam Summer Sale wrapped up. This is the single biggest ban-hammer strike in the history of Steam; the largest before this was on October 12th, 2016, when a total of 15.000 accounts were banned.
Steam Games With Valve Anti Cheat System
The morning after the Steam Summer Sale wrapped up, on July 6th, Valve made a huge crack-down on cheaters. The Valve Anti-Cheat (or VAC, if you will), got rid of a grand total of 40.411 Steam accounts. If the number seems incredible, well, that's because it is. The Steam Database ban chart shows an unprecedented spike. This is, by far, the most radical ban wave on Steam ever. On a normal day, an average of 5.000 accounts get banned daily, and the biggest previous wave got rid of 'only' 15.000 accounts.
Valve Anti Cheat Ban List
The timing of the ban-hammer smashing down is probably very intentional, as Dot Esports pointed out. Losing an account is not necessarily the end of the world for your average cheater, since they can just make another. However, this ban hit them where it might actually hurt – the wallet. According to Vac Ban, over $9.000 dollars in inventory value went down the VAC drain. You see, the VAC ban blocks you from accessing Valve's servers, Rendering cosmetic items worthless, which is what makes up the most of the lost inventory. Best of all, considering the timing, there was no real way for them to get these items on the cheap again.
Steam Games With Valve Anti Cheat Memes
Valve Anti Cheat System Download
The VAC wasn't the only thing working overtime on July 6th. Almost 5.000 accounts got banned in CS:GO, particularly griefers and those that the Anti-Cheat somehow missed. Of course, the cheaters will be back pretty soon. However, this precise strike of the ban-hammer is still pretty satisfying.
