ngrok now requires a valid payment method to use TCP endpoints in order to prevent abuse of its platform by malicious actors attempting to leverage it for malware campaigns. This change aims to make the internet a safer place and is necessary due to the increasing number of reports that ngrok's agent is being flagged as malware, leading to false positives and limitations on adoption. To combat this, ngrok has taken steps such as signing binaries with public certificates, removing old less secure agents, implementing aggressive policies to block bad signups, and ramping up content scanning to ban phishing campaigns. The goal is to reduce the likelihood of abuse and increase trust in the platform, while continuing to invest in fighting against malicious actors.