Microsoft Is Working To Increase Security For Xbox Party Chat

Xbox engineer Bill Ridmann recently confirmed that Microsoft is working in the background on improving security for Xbox Party Chat. Xbox is working on security improvements following consistent reports of denial-of-service attacks being raised by players. Traditionally, Party Chat operated using peer-to-peer connections that left IP addresses vulnerable.Ridmann announced that Microsoft was working to solve the issue in response to a thread on Reddit, where he stated that the Xbox team knew that was a problem. He says that Xbox is actively phasing out P2P voice connections for party chat completely. Ridmann says that the Xbox team is working in the background to stop denial-of-service attacks and that it has been moving a larger percentage of parties to be server-based week over week.

In a server-based system, users won't have to make direct connections to other party members meaning the party members can't see the IP address. Ridmann concluded by stating that soon there would be no more P2P-based parties.

Once Party Chat is entirely, server-based, IP security issues won't be a problem. Another bit of good news from Ridmann is that the app has only ever supported server-based parties meaning the IP address of user phones that were never exposed.

Additional security for Xbox users is always good news. Microsoft is busy gearing up for the launch this month of the Xbox Series X and Series S game consoles. The pre-order process hasn't gone as smoothly as Xbox and Microsoft would've wanted, and shortages of the console are expected to linger into next year. Anyone wanting more details on the Xbox Series X should check out our hands-on and unboxing from late last month. The console is certainly tall, but it looks very cool. Many people will have to use the tall Xbox on its side to fit it into crowded entertainment centers.