Wisdom from the Gurus

[Mr.Clean]

Hello guys,

 

Let me start by again thanking everyone at Evenbalance and the PBBans community for their hard work and the service they offer. My question is regarding how I may train myself to eventually be useful in these matters. I am a senior in an undergraduate Computer Science program but the more I learn the less I feel I know.

 

What languages, protocols, and/or tools should one study to prepare oneself to contribute to the anti-cheat community? The Computer Crime and Forensics course I took this summer got me hooked and as a gamer I naturally care about the gaming community and keeping it clear of cheaters. However, I feel so far my training is lacking. I've been exposed to ADA, C++, Java, Javascript, Visual Basic (I know, I know), and a little SQL but what is prominant in the gaming and security world?

 

Many thanks in advance to those wiser and more learned than myself,

 

Clean

[DaLynX]

Well for Windows security-oriented dev, try C. Some are just disgusted by that OS, but if you're not it can be a very interesting playground. (Start reversing it and take a ticket for a ride in the dark undocumented ring0 world hehe.)

 

In the *nix world, C is still the key language that allows you to do anything you want. Also Perl / Python might come handy, I would say.

 

SQL is just a request format so if you know how to use it, that's good, if not, it won't that hard to learn IMHO. It's not a programming language, but is useful for data storage & handling (got to know how to parse it too).

 

So in a letter : C. :)

 

Then for protocols, well, use of TCP & UDP should be well-known. And I guess it's quite the thing.

 

About anti-cheat purpose : try to get to know PunkBuster and all its abilities, and know how to use it at it's best. It is indeed a great tool to protect your server. But you may already have realized that. ;)

[Mr.Clean]

Thanks, DaLynX! I'll be entering the working world soon and I still feel wet behind the ears. While my University's program pushes OO there are still plenty of systems out there running non-OO languages. I can get by in C, just not fluently. I'll be doing some coding in Python this semester as well. The internet protocols are probably where I'm lacking the most, but maybe I can squeeze in a course dedicated to that branch of material before graduation.

 

PB, PBBans, and AON are all fantastic tools and I (personally) and my clan are very happy to be associated with them. We should streaming with AON shortly. Cheating just takes the on average $50 game and turns it into a giant waste of time for everyone. I game to relax, not to deal with script users, so knowing PB/PBBans has my back is very comforting.

 

Best wishes,

Clean