[Chapter-delegates] NEWS RELEASE: New Technique Developed to Identify Cheating in Online Games

[Greg Wood]

Hello,

For your reference, the following news release is being distributed  
today.

Sincerely,
-Greg

NEW TECHNIQUE DEVELOPED TO IDENTIFY CHEATING IN ONLINE GAMES

Presentation at NDSS 2010 builds on record response to Call for Papers

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA and GENEVA, SWITZERLAND--2 February 2010--In a  
paper scheduled to be presented at the upcoming 17th Annual Network  
and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS 2010), Darrell Bethea,  
Robert Cochran, and Michael Reiter of the University of North  
Carolina, Chapel Hill describe a technique they have developed to  
identify cheating in the rapidly growing, multi-billion dollar  
industry of online gaming which includes titles such as World of  
Warcraft. The full paper will be published in the NDSS Proceedings.

Cheating through the use of non-sanctioned client software compromises  
the gaming experience for players and undermines the revenue of game  
developers and operators. The approach outlined in the paper to be  
presented at NDSS 2010 could help ensure the integrity of the online  
gaming experience by providing an automated, alternative approach to  
current, manually programmed methods of identifying game cheats. The  
described approach is server-based and does not increase the required  
bandwidth, often a critical expense for game operators.

"The technique my colleagues and I have developed helps short-circuit  
the constant cat-and-mouse game currently underway between game  
operators and cheaters," said Michael Reiter, Professor in the  
Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina,  
Chapel Hill. "Because of the way the technique works, and the  
opportunities it provides for game operators to validate clients'  
actions, we believe it opens the door for considering new approaches  
to designing online games."

In addition to an outstanding program of technical presentations, the  
NDSS 2010 program will include a keynote presentation by former White  
House counterterrorism and cybersecurity czar Richard A. Clarke, an  
internationally-recognized expert on security, including homeland  
security, national security, cybersecurity and counterterrorism. The  
full NDSS program spans the spectrum of current security concerns,  
including:

*	Security of Web-based applications and services
*	Anti-malware techniques: detection, analysis, and prevention
*	Intrusion prevention, detection, and response
*	Combating cyber-crime: anti-phishing, anti-spam, and anti-fraud  
techniques
*	Privacy and anonymity technologies
*	Security for electronic commerce
*	Intellectual property protection
*	Security for collaborative applications: teleconferencing and video- 
conferencing

"The NDSS 2010 program continues the conference's tradition of  
providing an unsurpassed breadth of network and system security  
topics, and of presenting new research into areas such as spam and  
malware," said NDSS Program Chair Wenke Lee, a Professor in the School  
of Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "New to  
this year's conference are emphases in online identity and privacy of  
Web use and traffic, and a focus on ways in which safer Web  
programming can provide stronger foundations for security and privacy."

The NDSS 2010 program also for the first time includes a session on  
the ethical issues raised in networking and security research. The  
panel discussion will take place on 1 March during the first full day  
of the conference program.

NDSS brings together innovative and forward-thinking members of the  
Internet community - including leading-edge security researchers and  
implementers, globally-recognized security technology experts, and  
experienced professionals from both the private and public sectors -  
who design, develop, exploit, and deploy the new and emerging  
technologies that define network and distributed system security. NDSS  
2010 is sponsored by the Internet Society, and will be held in San  
Diego, California, from 28 February to 3 March. For more information,  
see: http://isoc.org/ndss10

About Internet Society
The Internet Society (ISOC) is a non-profit organization founded in  
1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education,  
and policy. ISOC is the organizational home of the Internet  
Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet's premier technical  
standards body. With offices in Washington, D.C., and Geneva,  
Switzerland, it is dedicated to ensuring the open development,  
evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of people  
throughout the world. For more information see http://InternetSociety.org

Media Contact
Greg Wood
Internet Society
wood at isoc.org
+1-703-439-2145