Tech

Are Hackers Ruining ‘Warzone’ Or Do You Just Suck?

Selling cheats in ‘Warzone’ is so lucrative that hackers are having trouble keeping up with demand.
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Image: Activision
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Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.

If you’ve played video games online, it’s happened to you. You’re holding it down in the warzone, helping your squad score a dub when suddenly your head explodes and there’s no way anyone on the enemy team could have known where you were let alone make the shot that killed you.

Do you just suck or could it be … a hacker?

Claiming a hacker killed you instead of taking the L with dignity is a time honored tradition in gaming. But in a lot of online shooters and Warzone in particular, hacking has become ubiquitous. The issue is so prevalent that Activision literally can’t remove them from the game fast enough and the people selling the hacks are running out of stock.

Here to walk us through the dark side of Call of Duty is Motherboard staff writer Joseph Cox. He’s here to talk about more than just Warzone. Also on the show this week, we explore the strange story of a hacked Iranian prison, how netflow data is a lucrative security vulnerability, and ask how Cox how he gets away with playing a PlayStation 5 on an iPod touch.