VAC

VAC commonly refers to Valve Anti-Cheat, an automated anti-cheat system developed by Valve Corporation for Steam. It is integrated with VAC-secured servers and aims to detect cheating software or memory modification that provides an unfair advantage in supported games. When a cheat is detected, the associated Steam account is issued a VAC ban, which is permanent and applies across all VAC-secured games on that account.

The system operates without public disclosure of specific detection methods to prevent circumvention. It updates over time as new cheats emerge, and its enforcement is intended to be broad and automatic rather than reliant on manual review for each case. VAC bans are intended to be a deterrent to cheating and to maintain fair play in popular titles such as Counter-Strike, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, and others.

Beyond gaming, VAC is also an acronym used in other fields, most commonly as Volts Alternating Current in electrical contexts, indicating AC voltage. In such use, VAC denotes electrical potential measured with respect to alternating current, and is a standard labeling convention found on devices and schematics.

In summary, VAC most often denotes Valve Anti-Cheat in the gaming community, a permanent, automated system designed to enforce fair play on Steam’s VAC-secured servers. The acronym can also refer to unrelated concepts in electrical engineering or other domains depending on context.