Carleton University - School of Computer Science Honours Project
Summer 2021
Analyzing Game Security Software and System Behaviour
Nareen Khurshid
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ABSTRACT
Computer security is continuously improving to combat malicious software. Methods of protection, as well as methods of breaking through such barriers, are updated and developed continuously. Firewalls, which protect the network and regulate network traffic, although well-known are ineffective when trusted users access bad connections and download malicious software both knowingly and unknowingly. Some users purposely install software that can manipulate other software, which normally does not allow such manipulation. While this can go undetected, anti-cheat software is often used by games to detect the use of such cheat software and proceeds to ban the users caught. Anti-cheat software is not always reliable and can impact the system negatively during and outside of gameplay. During the global Covid-19 pandemic, the absolute number of cheaters being caught in online multiplayer games has been increasing. This motivates us to measure cheating by comparing the difference in system behaviour when cheats are active and under normal conditions and exploring possible ways of measuring cheating.