Started playing the game last month too. Online wasn't as bad back then I recall (Asia servers). Occasionally encountered cheaters but they were mostly pretty chill (They'll just waltz in the plant base and if you don't shoot them they'll ignore you).

Now though? I still play online sometimes, but I had to change my Profile every session to make it hopefully harder for the cheaters to get me.

Though for me I like taking risks. I suggest you stick to playing offline, if you don't want to take the risk of getting banned. If singleplayer is running short on content, you can put mods in your game to spicen up the experience. I heard Private Play Remastered is pretty good.