Bruce Schneier is a well-known researcher and level 39, team Mystic Pokemon Go Trainer. He is writing about security issues on his blog, which is running from 2004. The current game he is playing is Pokemon Go and his interest is how Niantic is dealing with cheaters.
It is concluded that there are three types of cheating in Pokemon Go. The first one noticed is botting, where a computer plays instead of a person. The second type is spoofing, which is faking GPS, and convincing the game that you are somewhere you are not. These types are usually used together. The third type of cheating is using third-party applications, like trackers.
The only problem about these types of cheating is that other players are bothered by the ones that use them. Mainly, the cheats are used for gym battles. Everyone is having fun, but sometimes these people affect the level of fun the other players have because they pretend they are somewhere they are not, and also have lots of powerful Pokemon that are collected without any effort, says Bruce.
The Pokemon Company is dealing with these types of problems ever since the game was released. They firstly banned accounts that were associated with cheating. Recently, Niantic found a new way to put a stop to this problem, they implemented two new anti-cheating measures.
A first measure is a machine that is learning to detect cheaters. The second one is made to limit the functionality of the cheating account, not ban them. This is making it harder for the cheaters to know whether they have been discovered or not.
“One thing we all expect to be released in the game is trading. So if they create a market for rare or powerful Pokemon, this would give more motivation to cheat. The cheating detection in virtual reality games will always be a problem because these games are getting more popular and bigger,” says Bruce on his blog.
One thing that has crossed my mind is, how a busy man like Bruce Schneier, who is a writer, Chief Technology Officer, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Centar, and a board member of EFF, has managed to reach Lvl 39?
