Protecting the Call of Duty experience is #TeamRICOCHET’s highest priority. Cheating and hacking are challenges affecting all major games, and we’re fully engaged in the industry-wide fight against unfair play. Our goal is clear: to be best-in-class in anti-cheat innovation and effectiveness. It's an ongoing battle, but we’re in it for the long haul – and we’re not backing down.
Thank you to every player who continues to speak up and stand against cheating. We know how deeply cheating disrupts the integrity of the game. Even when the feedback is tough, we’re listening.
As part of our continued mission, we’re introducing new systems and security updates alongside Season 05 in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone that lay the groundwork for our future. These updates are targeted to strengthen our anti-cheat systems and keep your matches fun.
Season 05 Spotlight:
· TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot: Strengthening game security with built-in Windows PC features
· Securing Your Account: Protect against account hijacking with email verification and 2FA features
· Game Pass Free Trial on PC: Updated policy to support fair competition in Ranked Play
· Detections Targeting Boosting and Teaming: Removing boosters and teamers from the game and leaderboards with a focus on Ranked Play integrity
· Advancing Cheat Prevention: Targeting 22 additional individuals with legal action; nearly 40 cheat vendors shutdown since launch
· Community Questions: Additional details around two new security features, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot
Call of Duty Activates TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot
With Season 05, Call of Duty will begin a phased rollout of two PC-based security features: TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot.
TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) is an industry-standard, hardware-based security feature built onto CPUs or motherboards that verifies the PC’s boot process has not been tampered with. Secure Boot makes sure a PC can only load trusted software when Windows starts.
Together, these features help #TeamRICOCHET ensure that players are starting the game from a secure, cheat-free foundation.
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat will focus on activating both features in the background with the upcoming season launch. We won’t be enforcing against or requiring the use of either setting during Season 05, but these features will be foundational for even stronger protections in the future.
When Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 releases later this year, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot will be required to play on PC. These hardware-level protections are a key part of our anti-cheat efforts, and we’re asking all players to get compliant now.
This upcoming update will let us test our implementation of both features and gives you time to enable these settings. If your system isn’t ready, you’ll start seeing in-game notifications beginning this season.
We’ve published a Player Support article to walk you through setup. This is your chance to stay ahead. Stronger PC security means a fairer game for everyone.
Get Ready for Black Ops 7: Activate TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot Today
Why TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot Matter:
You’re here to play. Fairly. Competitively. RICOCHET Anti-Cheat is here to keep matches clean. TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot give us a better, more trustworthy arena to operate in.
What these features do:
· Validate your PC is launching in a trusted state
· Give us the ability to verify that trusted state in a secure way
· Allow us to confirm required security features are enabled
· Certify only trusted software can load during Windows boot up
When you play multiplayer, your PC connects to our servers to enable online play. If TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are on, Windows runs a security check at startup. The results of that check are passed to us when you connect, confirming your system hasn’t been tampered with.
The final check happens on our servers, making it harder to spoof and ensuring the process is secure from start to finish. We know privacy is important to everyone, and we want to be clear: this process doesn’t give us access to your personal files or information. It only verifies that your system booted cleanly.
As for performance, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot will not impact in-game quality. These features perform checks during system and game startup but remain inactive while you play.
We’re rolling this out carefully and monitoring everything closely. We want to strengthen security and protect the experience, without impacting performance.
#TeamRICOCHET will share more details on additional protection measures we’ll be putting in place for Call of Duty as we get closer to the Black Ops 7 launch.
PC Security Features of Secure Boot and TPM 2.0:
Secure Boot: One of the cornerstones of PC cheating is unsigned or modified code loading during system startup. Secure Boot blocks that method. Windows will only start if it sees trusted software and drivers.
· What this means for you: Makes cheating at a hardware level much more difficult, ensuring cleaner PCs at start and allowing for more trusted environments for RICOCHET Anti-Cheat to operate in.
There are several elements at play with TPM 2.0, but here are details on a few that will help in our ongoing effort to deliver fair and fun gameplay:
Platform Configuration Registers (PCRs): Special slots in the TPM that record key details about your system’s startup, helping to detect if anything has been altered. If any security setting is turned off or changed, the system will notice the difference from the original startup record and flag the computer as untrusted.
· What this means for you: Makes it more difficult for cheats that rely on bypassing operating system security to be activated.
Sealing and Binding: These functions lock specific data – like login credentials and encryption keys – to your device and its current system state. If the system changes, the data becomes inaccessible.
· What this means to you: Makes it more difficult for cheaters to use evasion tactics, like spoofing.
Remote Attestation: In Call of Duty, your PC (client) needs to communicate with us (server) to play online. TPM 2.0 can prove, or attest, to our servers that your system is in a known and trusted state.
· What this means to you: Faster, more reliable evaluations and more clarity for fair enforcement.
Secure Your Account with Email Verification and 2FA
Account security is essential. The Account Link Verification system we launched during Season 03 has already protected tens of thousands of accounts from potential hijacking.
Doing your part to optimize your own account security starts with ensuring your Activision account is linked to an email address you have access to. We will ask you to verify your email when playing Call of Duty on a new platform or whenever you perform sensitive account modifications.
Learn more about email verification on your Activision account
Keeping your email up to date also helps you recover your account and prove your identity whenever you need support.
Players should also enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on their Activision accounts to further protect their game. Two-Factor Authentication may become a requirement for all users in the future, so now is the best time to update your account and turn 2FA on.
Learn how to activate Two-Factor Authentication
Game Pass Free Trial on PC Policy Update
When Season 05 launches, Game Pass Free Trial accounts on PC will still have access to the Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies modes in Black Ops 6. But to ensure a fair competitive environment and gameplay experience, Game Pass Free Trial accounts on PC will not be able to participate in Multiplayer Ranked Play. Access will be limited to players with an active Game Pass subscription, or Black Ops 6 owners. This change helps us maintain integrity in our most competitive mode.
Detections Targeting Boosting and Teaming
To protect the integrity of Ranked Play, we launched new, dedicated detection tools for Boosting and Teaming. We’re also conducting deeper analyses of the leaderboards across Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone. All users that have climbed the leaderboard through illegitimate means have been removed, and this new process will continue to monitor and remove users that use Boosting and Teaming as a tactic.
Boosting services often flood lobbies with low-effort accounts used to illegitimately farm XP and complete challenges. These accounts are later sold as Ranked Play-ready, directly feeding the cheating marketplace. Additionally, methods like continuously idling to farm XP without playing the game – and using tactics to bypass idle detections – can create a negative experience for entire lobbies, especially for players that are matched on the same team as the account that is Boosting.
As outlined in the Activision Terms of Use, any form of Boosting is against policy. Boosting and Teaming are cheating. Language in the Security and Enforcement Policy will undergo adjustments to better reflect the details listed in the Activision Terms of Use.
Recently, we permanently banned accounts where Boosting made up the majority of their recent in-game activity. These were not random, one-off cases but extreme and repeated patterns of abuse.
We focus our enforcement on deliberate cheating behavior and Boosting is no exception. It undermines fair competition, and like all cheating, it won’t be ignored.
Disrupting Cheating Networks
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat escalated its campaign against the cheat marketplace by targeting 22 additional individuals responsible for developing and selling cheats. Each received a formal cease and desist demand letter, while we simultaneously dismantled their advertised services to cut off both cheat makers / resellers and customers in a coordinated strike.
The majority of those targeted have already sent us notices that they will comply, with several vendors announcing the closure of their illicit services. Those who remain non-compliant or resurface under new aliases will face further action. This dual-pronged approach, hitting both supply and demand, sends an unmistakable message: we’re not only disrupting the market; we’re working to dismantle it.
Thanks to legal and technical efforts, we have now directly contributed to the closure of nearly 40 cheat developers and resellers since Black Ops 6 launched.
The industry’s battle against cheaters and hackers requires constant innovation. RICOCHET Anti-Cheat is a live, evolving system that’s built to stay ahead of new threats and respond to in-game behavior in real-time.
There is no magic bullet to stop cheating; it is a challenge the entire industry is facing. #TeamRICOCHET continues to fight, and we remain committed to delivering the fair and fun experience you deserve.
COMMUNITY QUESTIONS
When Black Ops 7 is released, will Call of Duty: Warzone adopt the TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot requirements?
We’re currently focused on implementation and testing for Season 05 as we prepare for the launch of Black Ops 7 later this year. As security protocols evolve, we’ll continue to evaluate requirements like TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot in other experiences. Players will be informed of any changes ahead of time to deliver a smooth experience.
Does TPM 2.0 or Secure Boot give Call of Duty access to data like my login credentials or private files?
This process does not access your personal files or information, only Windows diagnostic data.
TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are security features built into Windows. They run before the operating system loads, checking that your system hasn’t been tampered with. When you launch Call of Duty, Windows tells us whether your system passed those checks.
If your system fails, you won’t be able to play until Windows confirms everything is secure. This is strictly about system integrity and protecting the game environment from cheats or tampering.
Is TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot support replacing existing systems like the RICOCHET Anti-Cheat kernel-level driver on PC?
These systems are complementary, not redundant.
While all are protection measures, they serve different purposes. TPM 2.0 is hardware-based security that’s embedded on a PC’s CPU or motherboard and enforced by Windows. TPM 2.0 enhances system trust at Windows boot up, but it is not a real-time monitoring or enforcement anti-cheat system. Secure Boot certifies only validated software launches when Windows boots up.
Our kernel-level driver monitors systems during gameplay and blocks tampering attempts. This operates alongside the game and allows for real-time enforcement of cheaters.
As a reminder, the RICOCHET Anti-Cheat kernel-level driver does not operate unless Call of Duty is running.
Will TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot end cheating?
TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot help combat cheating, but do not stop it in all its forms. They can verify a machine’s integrity against the many cheats that are injected into Windows as it loads – a tactic hackers use to hide cheats on a machine.
TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot do, however, raise the barrier of entry for many forms of cheating. Alongside the systems developed by RICOCHET Anti-Cheat, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot will make it more difficult to cheat in our games.
Why is now the right time for Call of Duty to implement TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot?
We believe TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are key components to delivering a high-integrity experience at scale for Call of Duty players on PC. We’re committed to providing a fun, fair and secure environment to our community. This will allow for maximum impact and minimal disruption to PC players.
Follow @CODUpdates on X for real-time updates, information from upcoming Progress Reports, and more.
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