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Any time you go online you are at risk of hacks and other breaches to your online information, accounts, and physical devices. This has led to the global consumer cybersecurity software market being estimated to grow to over $20 billion in revenue by 2032. Despite the constant risk of cyber crimes, many people overlook that online gaming can be subject to these attacks too, even mid-game. A recent attack on an Apex Legends tournament with a $125,000 prize pool led to it being postponed. Understandably, many online gaming communities are concerned about whether their favorite game will be targeted now, including The Finals.
In a recent Reddit post, players of The Finals expressed concern that the game may also be subject to the same hack that saw the Apex Legends Global Series postponed when players were hacked mid-tournament. These concerns arose upon discovering that both games use Easy Anti-Cheat to detect cheats and hacks used in the game. Easy Anti-Cheat is one of the most popular anti-cheat software used in gaming, with notable games including Fortnite, The Finals, Rust, and Battlefield 2042. However, after some investigating, it appears that Easy Anti-Cheat wasn’t at fault when it came to hackers discovering the exploit.
Easy Anti-Cheat recently responded to the hack and reassured players that the vulnerability wasn’t due to its software being exploited saying,
“We have investigated recent reports of a potential RCE issue within Easy Anti-Cheat. At this time – we are confident that there is no RCE vulnerability within EAC being exploited. We will continue to work closely with our partners for any follow up support needed”
It has been discovered that the exploit is likely due to Apex Legends running on a modified version of Valve’s Source Engine. This engine is best known for powering games such as Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, and Portal. When it comes to competitive games, the most notable uses of Source Engine are Valve’s own CS: GO and DOTA 2, but as of writing there has been no information as to whether this same exploit could be possible on those games. It looks as though The Finals, which saw Season 2 launch last week, is safe from this exploit as it is powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5.
While you can play The Finals without any concern that you’re at risk, if you’re also an Apex Legends player, for the foreseeable I advise exercising caution when playing as a hacker can use the exploit to do various things from injecting cheats into your game to installing ransomware onto your PC. If you’re not a content creator then it is likely that you won’t be targeted, but millions of people suffer from the effects of cyber crimes every year, with one in two American internet users having accounts breached, and over 236 million ransomware attacks occurring globally in the first half of 2022 alone.
This is a good time to remind readers to check their security measures online, from changing passwords of breached accounts to updating or even installing software such as Malware Bytes, and being more vigilant when it comes to what links you click on.
