Fortnite Flaws Left Player Base At Risk; 'Very Serious Privacy Issue'

BOSTON (WBZ-AM) — Vulnerabilities in the massively-popular video game Fortnite left players' accounts open to takeover by hackers, new research reports.

Software tech company Check Point uncovered the issues, which put the game's over 80 million players at risk of having their personal information stolen and more. WBZ NewsRadio's Nichole Davis caught up with CBS technology analyst Larry Magid to talk about the attacks.

"There is a flaw which enables an attacker to get into the game and get credentials—but more important, even the ability to listen to or record the conversations of users, as well as to be able to purchase items charged to the users' accounts," Magid said. "So you've got both potential financial crime here, but also a very serious privacy issue, especially given that there are many minors, many children who are playing Fortnite, and the last thing that anybody, any parent would want is for their child's conversations, they think they're talking to other kids, for those to me monitored by adult hackers."

The methodology of the attack was explained thoroughly in a Check Point Software blog post and in the video above.

Hear more from Magid in the extended interview below.

WBZ NewsRadio's Nichole Davis (@NicholeDWBZ) reports


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