Riot’s take on banning cheaters from Valorant has been to introduce an anti-cheat system called Vanguard, which is active at all times. The kernel has full administration rights to your computer and it launches when you boot up the system. Riot implemented this so if cheaters decided to tamper with their code it will immediately ban them.
But because the software has access to your computer, the app will be able to take all your information if hacked, leaving you vulnerable to data theft. Riot has stated on their website that they won’t take any data with their privacy policy, mentioning that “Both the client and the driver of Riot Vanguard have been developed in-house, with both game safety and personal computer safety being a priority. We’ve made this commitment through extensive testing and by reviewing the product both internally and with external security reviews by industry experts.
Our commitment to safety includes our commitment to your privacy. Riot Vanguard was made with Riot Games' dedication to data privacy specifically in mind, and we worked with our legal and compliance teams to ensure it adheres to regional data privacy laws. Specifics on what data we use and collect are available here.”
This move by Riot will help in decreasing the number of cheaters, but it will have a lot of risks for the users themselves as the app is a rootkit and it has extensive access to your system and personal information. Riot can also not guarantee that this will be exploited by third parties. You can find a detailed video explaining the risks of the kernel here.
Well it sucks, but today we had to ban our first cheater (and it looks like more bans are on the horizon).
— Paul Chamberlain (@arkem) April 9, 2020
I was hoping for a little more time before this fight kicked off but we're in it now and we're ready.
The good news is the anti-cheat system works fine and Riot has already started banning hackers according to a tweet from Paul Chamberlain. In the tweet, Chamberlain stated ”Well it sucks, but today we had to ban our first cheater (and it looks like more bans are on the horizon). I was hoping for a little more time before this fight kicked off but we're in it now and we're ready.”
So, what are your thoughts on Valorant’s anti-cheat system? Do you think they went too far by implementing this program deep into your computer? Whatever your thoughts may be, let us know in the comments below.
