Epic Games has disabled an old webpage from 2004 because it contained vulnerabilities that could have been used to hack player’s accounts and put Fortnite account security at risk. As soon as the company was made aware of the issue, Epic Games moved quickly to deactivate the offending webpage which happened to be an old Unreal Tournament records webpage.
The issue was brought to Epic Games’ attention by security researchers from Check Point (according to CNET) who then moved swiftly to resolve the situation. While it doesn’t seem like any accounts were compromised, the vulnerability in the old webpage meant that potential hackers would not need user’s passwords to gain access to the accounts. They would then have been able to listen in on player’s conversations as well as purchase in-game items with the account holder’s credit card.
“We were made aware of the vulnerabilities and they were soon addressed. We thank Check Point for bringing this to our attention.” said an Epic Games spokesperson. “As always, we encourage players to protect their accounts by not reusing passwords and using strong passwords, and not sharing account information with others.”
The popularity of Fortnite continues to increase with the number of concurrent players reaching 8.3 million, back in November. While it doesn’t appear that it would’ve helped in this particular situation, Epic Games are keen to encourage players to enable two-factor authentication which adds a layer of security to your account by way of a PIN that is sent to your phone or device.
Unfortunately, it’s a widespread problem across all game platforms. Even accounts that may not necessarily allow access to sensitive information such as credit card details, can be at risk. An account with a lot of in-game purchases or items are often targeted.
It’s a timely reminder to double check the security of your accounts and take advantage of any extra layers of protection that may be on offer.
