[Pc Games] Respawn Rolls Out Security Update in Response to Apex Legends Hack

[GL HERO SHIMA]

Apex Legends developers at Respawn have responded to a hacking incident over the weekend that forced its North American Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) esports finals to be put on hold.

"On Sunday, a few professional Apex Legends players accounts were hacked during an ALGS event," Respawn wrote late Tuesday night. "Game and player security are our highest priorities, which is why we paused the competition to address the issue immediately. Our teams have deployed the first of a layered series of updates to protect the Apex Legends player community and create a secure experience for everyone."

"We are working," writes Apex Legends Security Analyst Conor Ford. "The team on this are some of the most talented I've ever had the pleasure of working with. All I can say is, the care and love shown from parties involved makes me thankful for the coworkers and devs on this game."

"Lots of folks across various teams have been working extremely hard in response to this the last few days," says Apex Legends Build Engineer Tyler Owens. "We care deeply about this game and know you do too."

The Respawn-affiliated Apex Legends esports account also responded, saying the esports league is "still actively working" with Respawn and its parent company Electronic Arts to resolve the issue.

"At this time, we do not anticipate any changes to the Split 1 Playoffs," Apex Esports wrote. "We will have more information to share on the Challenger Circuit and the NA Regional Finals soon."

Respawn has not yet shared any further details on the hack, including how it happened or whether other players could be at risk. Two professional players known as Genburten and ImperialHal reported being hacked mid-game during the tournament over the weekend. In Genburten's case, two hackers known as Destroyer2009 and R4ndom took credit for the attack and installed cheats on the pro's account in the middle of a match. The hackers' reasons for attacking the tournament are unknown, though Destroyer2009 appears to be a known cheater in the game.

One Twitter account focused on anti-cheats suspects the attack was an RCE exploit, or remote code execution attack, though Respawn has not confirmed this. Apex's anti-cheat software, Easy Anti-Cheat, said its kernel-level software was not the vector of an RCE attack (though it failed to detect the cheats installed). Unfortunately, cheating has been a problem in Apex Legends for years. Some bad actors are even able to get around hardware-level bans and are able to keep making new accounts with cheats installed to play the game.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/respawn-rolls-out-security-update-response-to-apex-legends-hack