Blizzard Bans 10,000 Overwatch Cheaters

Blizzard is starting the new year by banning a whole lot of hackers on Overwatch caught using aimbots. More than 10,000 cheaters have been kicked off by Blizzard Korea including several users who have resorted to “Nuke King” attacks. Nuke King is a targeted form of denial of service attack aimed at a particular IP and is especially insidious because it affects more than just one targeted player and eventually disconnects all users connected in its cluster.

Even though cheating in games is a serious offense in South Korea, with their parliament passing an amendment to a law last month punishing aimbotters, scripters, and hack programmers, there are still quite a few who who dare to violate it.  Nuking itself violates several of South Korea’s Internet laws and those caught can get punished with fines up to $43,000 USD on top of getting banned or face jail time up to 5-years. This might sound severe to many users in the West but gaming and e-Sports is taken very seriously in Asia and a lot of money is involved in competitive gaming industry so hacking is scene as a disruption of more than just a pastime but an economic one as well.

Full Statement by Blizzard Korea (translated from Korean):

Hello Overwatch players.

Creating and delivering a pleasant game environment for the majority of good players is of paramount importance to us and we are committed to taking all the steps we can take to create, distribute and use nuclear programs. We are also aware of the fact that nuclear programs are circulated through various communities, and we will prepare countermeasures.

We also listen carefully to specific opinions (account, IP, etc.) and feedback from diverse communities, and we are conducting research based on your feedback. We are also discussing various ways with our head office to solve fundamental problems.

I would like to thank all the players who have always sent a lot of opinions through the over-watch community, and I am also working on the information you give to Hacks@blizzard.com. I would appreciate your transfer.

Reason for sanction and number of sanctions:

• Unacceptable use of third-party programs – 61 (2016/06)
• Use of unauthorized third party programs – 79 (2016/07)
• Unacceptable use of third-party programs – 151 (2016/08)
• Lucy Bowlberg Exploit Article – 249 (2016/08)
• Unacceptable use of 3rd party external programs – 567 (2016/09)
• Unacceptable use of third-party programs – 1,263 (2016/10)
• Jung-Kwon Stein’s multiple seat clearance / non-game sanction – 205 (2016/10)
• Unacceptable use of third-party programs – 2,025 (2016/11)
• Unacceptable use of third-party programs – 4,502 (2016/12)
• Use of unauthorized third party programs – 1,163 (201/01/03)
• Unauthorized Third Party Use of External Programs – 2,397 (2017/01/06)
• Use of third party non-approved programs – 7,038 (2017/01/11)
• Use of third party non-approved programs – 3,859 (Jan 13, 2017)

In order to create a pleasant game environment, our team also promises to continuously check for cheating and take necessary measures, and your reports and feedback are also very helpful.

Please let us know if you find any player who has committed fraud on Overwatch, or if you know information about nuclear, bots, or unauthorized external software related to overwatch. Within the game, you can right-click on a player’s name to report it, or email (hacks@blizzard.com) or the web- reporting form .

You can also find more information about fraud handling in [here] .

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your pleasant game, and I will do my best to reward you for your interest and love in the game.