The Call of Duty RICOCHET team has made a huge announcement for Call of Duty Black Ops 7 and its security measures.
Quick Refresher: What is RICOCHET?
RICOCHET is the Call of Duty anti-cheat system. It goes beyond using software to check for cheat signatures. They have protocols to check player behavior in their servers, study gameplay to check for autoclickers or speedhacks, etc. RICOCHET even has intrusive kernel level access to each PC player’s system.
RICOCHET Adds TPM 2.0 And Secure Boot
The Call Of Duty RICOCHET team made this announcement:
When Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 releases later this year, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot will be required to play on PC. These hardware-level protections are a key part of our anti-cheat efforts, and we’re asking all players to get compliant now.
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat will focus on activating both features in the background with the upcoming season launch. We won’t be enforcing against or requiring the use of either setting during Season 05, but these features will be foundational for even stronger protections in the future.
What Is TPM 2.0?
TPM stands for Trusted Platform Module. You may not have known it, but this is actually a physical component that’s been included in Windows PCs since 2006.
TPM 2.0 evolved so that computers don’t need the physical module to use the security protocol. The Steam Deck has TPM support in the form of an AMD firmware update. There are also software TPMs, and virtual TPMs for virtual machines.
In general terms, TPM runs every time you boot up your computer to make sure each and every part inside it is authentic.
What is Secure Boot?
Secure Boot is a protocol that’s part of UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). UEFI is a PC architecture standard that emerged the same time TPM first came out. UEFI was created to replace BIOS, the architecture standard IBM used in their IBM PCs since the 1980s.
Secure Boot makes sure your computer’s booting process itself is secure. It checks if the applications that boot your computer, such as UEFI applications and operating system loaders, are authentic.
Why Do We Need TPM 2.0 And Secure Boot?
In general, when you use a Windows computer, both TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot make sure that you aren’t running hacking and malware tools, on both the software and hardware side. In 2025, the threat of viruses and hackers is so pervasive that Microsoft and other computer companies need to use multiple layers of security measures.
Why Does Call of Duty Need TPM 2.0 And Secure Boot?
The Call Of Duty RICOCHET team gave these specific reasons:
- Validate your PC is launching in a trusted state
- Give us the ability to verify that trusted state in a secure way
- Allow us to confirm required security features are enabled
- Certify only trusted software can load during Windows boot up
They also assured players they aren’t storing any personal files or information, and these security measures will only check if your computer booted up cleanly.
If you play Call of Duty on PC, you’ll definitely need to set all of these up. But TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot can be difficult to check. This is definitely true if you’re not familiar with Windows at a programmer level. And this can get complicated if you make a mistake setting it up.
We’ll direct you to Activision’s official guide here, and you should contact their customer service if you do run into any problems.
