Anti-Cheat Tactics Offer Ransomware Defense Lessons

Researchers Collins and Muench on Zero Trust, Memory Hiding and Delayed Bans Michael Novinson (MichaelNovinson) • August 14, 2025

Anti-cheat systems in the gaming industry are built to withstand an extreme security challenge - defending against attackers who own the system, control the hardware and can disable protections.

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The hostile gaming environment has forced developers to create defenses that assume total system compromise from the outset. This approach has produced innovative security mechanisms that could transform enterprise cybersecurity strategies, particularly in ransomware defense where traditional perimeter security fails.

"When you're trying to defend a game, you have to run it on a system you have zero control over. The attacker is the user. They have full access to admin privileges, software, firmware, hardware. They'll turn off normal defenses," said Sam Collins, Ph.D. researcher at the ...