Call of Duty says it's making it harder to cheat in Black Ops 7 Season 3

Activision has provided Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and War zone players with a new update to the shooter's anti-cheat system, known as Ricochet, for Season 3, which launched earlier today. The studio's anti-cheat team has been working on improving Ricochet for Season 3 of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and now says new security measures should make it harder for bad actors to reach multiplayer matches or affect other players' accounts.

The last season of Call of Duty launched on April 2 and brought a wealth of new content to not only Black Ops 7but its free-to-play Battle Royale counterpart, War zone. Multiplayer fans have plenty of new maps to check out, as well as some favorite remasters, like the Plaza from Black Ops 2. There's also a new Battle Pass for players to check out, with the free tiers once again including some new unlockable weapons. As for Zombies fans, the wait for a new map will be a bit longer, as Totenreich won't be released until the Season 3 Reloaded update.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 updates anti-cheat system for Season 3

As with all popular live services, cheating and hacking are a continuing problem Call of Duty. Thankfully, Activision has a proprietary anti-cheat system in place known as Ricochet to combat those who want to spoil the fun for others. In a new blog post on the game's official website, Activision has revealed some key changes that are in place for Black Ops 7s big season 3 update. Team Ricochet says they've expanded device detection, updated attestation messages, and added new security measures to make it harder for bad actors to reach matches or affect other players' accounts.

With the launch of Season 2 last month, Activision followed suit Call of Duty players using third-party input modifiers, such as Cronus Zen and XIM Matrix. These devices are often used by players to simulate machine-perfect aim and recoil control, giving an increased advantage over other players. The studio said stopping such devices was no easy task, as they are designed to hide, adapt and change configurations to avoid detection. Now, with the launch of Season 3 on April 2, Team Ricochet says they've expanded their device detection to continue cracking down on those using unauthorized devices.

Alongside continued efforts to prevent players from using such devices, Activision has also introduced a new account security measure for Season 3. Starting today, all new Activision accounts created will be required to use SMS two-factor authentication if they are free-to-play users on PC. The studio says this helps protect against account compromise, farming and repeat offenders. “We're starting with newly created PC accounts and expanding to existing accounts in the coming weeks,” the blog post said. At the time of writing, this only applies to free-to-play PC players who don't own one Call of Duty title released in the last two years and will be applied per platform.

It's not just anti-cheat updates that Activision has focused on either, as the publisher has also been actively shutting down Call of Duty cheating suppliers in the last year. Back in March 2025, Activision forced one of the War zones biggest cheat providers, Phantom Overlay, to shut down for good. Then, just a few weeks later, it was reported that four more cheating suppliers were forced out of business. This is not something that is easy to do, as it requires a lot of resources and legal avenues, but preventing players from easily accessing cheats is another effective way to stop cheaters from wreaking havoc Call of Duty experience.