Black Ops 2 devs respond to hackers boosting account levels with new update

The Black Ops 2 PlayStation port has been plagued with hackers resetting accounts and altering Prestige levels, and the devs have released an update to counter it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 arrived on PlayStation 4 and 5 on July 9, bringing faithful ports of the old games but with new servers.

However, BO2’s servers have been plagued with cheaters who can kick players out of lobbies, lock them out of changing classes, reset account levels, and even boost them all the way to a non-existent Prestige 15 — effectively ruining the online portion of the game.

The devs have been making changes to fight this, but only recently, notorious cheater ‘C Isn’t Sharp‘ was still causing havoc. Now, the devs have released more security updates to Black Ops 2 and are cracking down on players who have abused hacked lobbies to increase their rank.

Black Ops 2 devs respond to account level hacks

“We’ve released backend updates to improve match security as we review accounts with incorrect Prestige levels,” Activision announced on August 2.

They said you “may briefly see an account ban notice” after being taken out of a match or session, but “this is a byproduct of legacy systems used by older titles and does not necessarily mean enforcement has been taken against the account.”

If the ban message goes away and you’re able to reconnect, then “your account has been processed successfully and no further action is required.”

However, “If you’re unable to reconnect, your account has been identified for enforcement based on evidence of intentionally obtaining unauthorized Prestige levels or other violations of our Terms of Service, including account manipulation.”

It’s unclear how long the work to fix the issue will take, as over on the Black Ops 2 subreddit, players claim they’re still encountering hacked lobbies that are either resetting their rank or boosting them to Prestige 15.