Fortnite security flaws lead to class action lawsuit

Epic Games is facing a class action lawsuit over security flaws which may have enabled hackers to access the personal details of Fortnite account holders.

The suit, reported by Polygon, centres on vulnerabilities in Epic Games’ online platform which were uncovered by Check Point Research in January.

According to the cyber threat intelligence site, these vulnerabilities could have allowed malicious users to assume control of any Fortnite player’s account, view their personal details, purchase in-game currency, and listen to and record their in-game chat.

While Epic acknowledged the issue and deployed a fix, the class action suit alleges it failed “to maintain adequate security measures and notify users of the security breach in a timely manner”.

It was filed by Franklin D. Azar & Associates in the US District Court in North Carolina and has more 100 class members.

“Epic Games has not yet directly informed or notified individual Fortnite users that their [personally identifiable information] may be compromised as a result of the breach,” the suit says.

Fortnite season X launched on August 1 and introduced two-person mech suits to the game, but the headline addition has proved controversial, with many complaining they’re overpowered.

Epic has since lowered mech spawn rates in Arena and Tournament playlists and pledged to make further changes to how they work in order to improve combat interactions in an upcoming Fortnite update.