UPDATE 11/5: Bethesda have provided further comment to IGN contesting the validity of the claims made in a Reddit thread asserting that Fallout 76 is extremely vulnerable to hacking. Here is the full statement:

"Many of the claims in the thread are either inaccurate or based on incorrect assumptions. The community has however called to attention several issues that our teams are already actively tracking and planning to roll out fixes for. Our goal is always to deliver a great experience for all our players. Cheating or hacking will not be tolerated. We know our fan base is passionate about modding and customizing their experience in our worlds and it's something we intend to support down the road."

The statement does not say specifically which claims are false, but Bethesda is clearly aware of whatever legitimate issues have been raised and plans to correct them.

You can read the original story below, published before the above statement was received:

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Fallout 76’s PC version could be worryingly vulnerable to hacking according to claims from some players with beta access, and Bethesda is "aware and investigating."

A thread on the Fallout subreddit reports that Fallout 76 is basically as easy to mod as Fallout 4, and that the servers don’t actually check to verify if client-side files have been modified. That means modders could convert existing Fallout 4 mods to work with Fallout 76 and then play with them online without issue, or make entirely new ones that offer an unfair advantage.

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IGN reached out to Bethesda for comment on the claims, and they said “Our teams are aware and investigating the issue,” implying that there is validity to these claims. Bethesda didn't immediately provide a response as to what specifically is being done to address these reports, or how hackers would be detected or punished.

“ Bethesda told IGN "Our teams are aware and investigating the issue."

If true, the implications are severe. A mod that makes lockpicking easier has already popped up for Fallout 76 and has reportedly functioned without problems during its PC betas (with a gameplay video to prove it) – but there would be nothing from stopping hackers from making significantly more malicious changes, like increasing health or letting their player go through walls.

The Reddit thread also claims that Fallout 76’s server traffic messages are unencrypted, potentially allowing hackers to access server information like player locations more easily than they would be able to otherwise.

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While we aren’t able to check the validity and extent of these reports until Fallout 76’s next PC beta test on Tuesday, Bethesda's response seems to indicate there is at least some truth to them, and we'll aim to confirm them ourselves tomorrow. Fallout 76 launches on November 14.

Tom Marks is IGN's PC Editor and pie maker. You can follow him on Twitter