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Greetings wonderful Capsuleers and welcome to the Monthly Security Report for September 2019, where we'll look over the month's activity against botting, RMT and account hacking.

As always, let's look at the raw numbers for September 2019:

732 account bans for account hacking.

2822 account bans for botting related activities.

1706 account bans for RMT related activities.

These numbers represent account action taken between 2019/09/01 and 2019/09/30.

Current Focus

Our current focus lies with providing feedback to those members of the community who come forward to provide us with reports regarding those who they suspect are botting or using other forms of client automation, as well as hitting those who you guys are all reporting of course.

We've seen some chatter among players relating to the first wave of feedback that we've been testing, which lets pilots know when a bot report has been actioned.

We've been watching feedback relating to this and we'll be looking to make changes and evolve the feedback loop based on suggestions from pilots across New Eden.

With the end of the blackout, we're also currently watching player behavior very carefully to see what changes occur and to see how those who are suspected of botting or who have been reported respond to the reintroduction of local.

A Few Reminders!

Of course when we're talking about input automation, we'd like to stress a reminder that if pilots are caught botting, even on just one account, they'll lose EVERYTHING.

When we ban based on solid evidence that a player is botting, it is the human behind the computer that is removed from EVE Online. Reprimand for botting is handled in this way, not on an account basis.

This means that any accounts that are associated with the pilot who was involved in botting will be banned.

Please bear this in mind before you engage in what is one of the most illegal and economically destructive practices in New Eden.

We'd also like to remind pilots of the definition of input broadcasting and of course the fact that it remains against the EULA.

Input broadcasting is defined as using a single user input to issue the same command on multiple EVE Clients. This remains a breach of the EVE Online EULA and will be actioned to the full extent of our anti-botting and anti-cheating policies.

We need to continue to stress that any form of exploitation, client automation, input automation or botting of any kind will result in an immediate and permanent suspension of all access to EVE Online.

What Can You Do To Help

As always, we'll keep reinforcing this message and stressing it every month - DON'T RMT, AND DON'T GET INVOLVED WITH BOTTING.

The most responsible thing you can do as citizen of New Eden is to say something if you see this kind of activity in game.

Report it to us and we'll investigate and action it as soon as we can.

We will give those involved in botting and real money trading no quarter. Those who harbor these people and profit from it will be stripped of assets and ISK that are gained through illicit means.

By RMTing, or by harboring people who bot and RMT, you’re contributing to the real-life wallets of people who do not care about EVE, or our community. These are people who destroy the accounts of innocent players, in some instances causing irreparable damage to characters and shattering years of progress for legitimate players who play by the rules and just want to enjoy EVE.

Most importantly, if you see botting and RMT happening – REPORT IT. Moreover, if you're being told not to report it, ignore this advice.

Along with account hacking, botting and RMT are the most damaging illicit behaviors that harm EVE Online and all three are sometimes linked together in the same network of scumbags who want to take your stuff.

While we don’t respond to every individual report of botting or RMT, they’re all taken 100% seriously, and are thoroughly investigated for credibility.

Aside from reporting botters and real money trading, the biggest help you can provide is not to give these scumbags any business.

Use Two Factor Authentication!

We cannot stress this enough – we know how much effort goes into character development in EVE Online, and it’s worth the extra login step to protect your accounts from abuse and damage.

Protect it all. Enable two factor authentication on all your EVE accounts, and on the email accounts that are verified against them.

Most hacking cases that we deal with don’t originate from a simple password breach on an EVE Online account – they occur when a player’s email account is hacked, and a password reset request is sent to the email address, which then gives access to your characters and assets.

You can help keep your accounts secure by using 2FA on both your email and your EVE Online account and reduce the risk of becoming a victim of account hacking.

For extra security, you can also make sure you use a mobile authentication token to keep code generation on your mobile device and away from your email accounts.

You can find out more about how to set up Two Factor Authentication here!

Final Words

Your feedback matters, as does your reporting of those who're involved in illicit activities in EVE Online.

We're always happy to see that for the best part, the EVE Community remains vigilant against those who are botting, RMTing and account hacking.

Keep the reports coming, and we'll keep rooting these guys out as quickly and efficiently as we can.

We remain 100% committed to keeping up the fight against botting, RMT and account hacking in New Eden, and we'll continue to hit these guys as hard as we can while looking at ways to deter them further as best as we can.

It can't be stressed enough that while you don't receive a lot of feedback on individual botting reports right now, every report matters.

As always, we'd love to hear your feedback, so feel free to hit the comments thread for this blog if you'd like to chat more about this blog.