CSGO restricts third-party software to prevent hacking

The CSGO Twitter account and blog post have just announced that Valve will now limit third-party software that interacts with the game to make it more resistant to hacking.

The short blog post says Valve will block many third-party apps from running alongside CSGO, but declined to say what types of software will be blocked. This update is now live in beta CSGO. The developer says that while users can turn this option off, those who choose not to block those apps will have a lower trust factor score.

Today we’re shipping an optional beta branch of CS:GO with changes that are part of our continuing fight against cheating. More in today’s Blog Post: https://t.co/4KVVkzllzl

— CS:GO (@CSGO) June 26, 2020

CSGO’s “trust factor” is Valve’s way of classifying suspected hacks. No one knows how Valve calculates a player’s trust factor, but the developer says it’s based on many parameters: how long an account was created, number of reports, and time played. For example, experienced gamers who create a new Steam account to play with friends with low rank will likely have a low trust factor. A low trust factor score works like a “shadow ban”, meaning that accounts with low scores will only be paired with accounts with low scores.

Those who don’t choose the new CSGO update will have much worse matchmaking.

In addition, many believe that the trust factor is also affected by CSGO’s “Overwatch” program (Overwatch allows players ranked Gold Nova I and above to review game demos of people reported by other players). Overwatch participants can judge whether or not they believe the person in question is using a hack. CS’s trust factor is also affected by “griefing”, meaning that users who intend to disrupt the game by intentionally hindering their teammates or damaging the team will have a lower trust factor score.

CSGO’s new anti-hack update came out less than a month after Valorant’s presence. Riot Games’ Valorant is a first-person shooter and uses a controversial anti-cheat system called Vanguard. Vanguard has access to the root of the device, which means it monitors and analyzes the user system in any behavior that interacts with Valorant even when the game is not running. Vanguard seems to be working well, having banned thousands of hackers during the game’s beta phase.

2020 was a record year for Counter-Strike, although the game’s player count dropped a bit when Valorant launched. Worse, many professional Counter-Strike players have come to compete for the new game.

Players have been constantly complaining about hacks in CSGO since the game’s release in 2012, but there have been very few public updates on Valve’s anti-cheat VAC system shared over the past eight years. You can try the new update of CSGO by choosing beta CSGO according to the following instructions:

• Open Steam and right-click on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
• Click “Properties”.
• In the “Properties” window, select the “Betas” tab.
• From the list in “Select the beta you would like to opt into”, choose this version:

Once selected, Steam will download the CSGO beta and you can test for yourself how Valve’s new limit works in-game.

Quite surprising that Valve has not blocked software that interacts with game files, until now. Perhaps Valorant blew cold air on the back of CSGO developers forcing them to work harder on anti-hacking.

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