Epic Games Slapped With Class Action Suit Related To January’s Security Breach, Fortnite World Cup Winner Swatted While Streaming

Epic Games and Fortnite have been slapped with a class-action lawsuit in a North Carolina District Court over a security breach that have allowed hackers to access the personal information of over 200 million user accounts. Epic acknowledged the security flaw back in January after it was pointed out by independent cybersecurity firm Check Point. Here’s an excerpt from our news piece earlier this year:

“According to Check Point’s researchers, hackers could’ve gained access to accounts by exploiting weaknesses in Epic Games’ web infrastructure, using phishing links that would have looked like a legitimate Epic Games sub-domain. Once clicked, malicious code would then capture the user’s login credentials and give the hacker access to the whole account including personal information, the ability to purchase premium currency, and even eavesdrop on in-game communications.”

Epic promptly employed additional security measures in response to the possible breach of personally identifiable information. According to Polygon however, Franklin D. Azar & Associates still filed the lawsuit on grounds of “failure to maintain adequate security measures and notify users of the security breach in a timely manner.” The firm is also urging affected users to join the class suit which now has more than 100 members.

In other Fortnite news, Kotaku reports that 16-year old World Cup Finals winner Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf was recently “swatted” while streaming the game. Bugha’s stream was interrupted mid-game when his father tells him that there were armed police at their front door.

He comes back 10 minutes later saying, “Yeah I got swatted. [. . .] They come in with guns, bro. They literally pulled up, holy shit.” Luckily, one of the officers who responded to the call lived in his neighborhood, preventing a potentially deadly situation from escalating further.