A number of professional Apex Legends players were hacked mid-match during the game’s Global Series, putting a stop to the tournament and sparking concern about the security of some EA games.
During the North American finals of the Apex Legends Global Series, Noyan "Genburten" Ozkose was surprised to discover the ability to see through walls, an incident you can see in the video below from X/Twitter user @Apryze_:
NO WAY @Genburten getting hacked mid algs game pic.twitter.com/PaVOjmnEGs
— Apryze? (@Apryze_) March 18, 2024
It didn’t stop there. Phillip "ImperialHal" Dosen was then somehow given an aimbot. Footage shows chat taken over by the words "Apex hacking global series by Destroyer2009 & R4ndom."
So i was given Aimbot but it was just me playing on Controller all good guys. Nerf controller! pic.twitter.com/2ztHtoOnRB
— TSM ImperialHal (@ImperialHal) March 18, 2024
Apex Legends esports was then forced to abandon the tournament. “Due to the competitive integrity of this series being compromised, we have made the decision to postpone the North American finals at this time,” the organisation said in a statement. “We will share more information soon.”
According to video game cheat prevention organization the Anti-Cheat Police Department, hackers are abusing a Remote Code Execution (RCE) exploit to gain control over EA games protected by Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC). In a tweet, the Anti-Cheat Police Department issued a warning to players: “I would advise against playing any games protected by EAC or any EA titles once they have fixed this or can comment.
“Currently, the RCE is being abused to inject cheats into streamers machines, which means they have the capabilities to do whatever, like installing ransomware software locking up your entire PC.”
please don’t play apex until this is addressed, if players at the highest level of play are affected, anybody could be https://t.co/ylgcW4tNF8
— laser (@laser__cs) March 18, 2024
The Anti-Cheat Police Department then issued a specific recommendation to the pros who took part in the tournament, suggesting they take immediate measures to protect their personal information.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
