Google has issued a warning to Fortnite players on Android, as it can be hijacked by hackers to instigate “worm” attacks on players.
The hack allows other apps on a user’s device to silently install unapproved software in the background.
Tim Sweeney, Epic Games CEO, acknowledged this issue but said Google should have waited longer to reveal the problem.
A fan wrote to Tim on Twitter, saying: “Now I know I need to load up the game and update it or delete the app. Any of the players who just tried out Fortnite would have been exposed.”
To which Tim replied: “Yes, telling users that a flaw was found and advising updating is valuable. But, again, why did Google have to rapidly disclose the technical details? Who does that help, other than hackers?”
Lawrence Pingree, a cyber security specialist at SonicWall, told The Independent: “As Fortnite continues to grow in popularity, it will become a greater vector for launching malware and ransomware, with malicious actors possibly even pivoting to kinetic ransomware-style attacks,
“With kinetic ransomware, victims are forced to complete an action to regain access to their encrypted devices… We saw this in April with the PUBG ransomware, which forced victims to play a game called PlayerUnknown’s Battleground for one hour to decrypt the device. While this instance was benign, the potential implications are far reaching and quite dark.”
While we’re on the subject, if you’ve played Fortnite recently, you’ll know that a huge purple cube has appeared. The weirdest thing was that it was rolling across the map randomly. However, that’s just changed as it now has a low-gravity dome around it.
The cube is now surrounded by a dome of low gravity! #Fortnite pic.twitter.com/dNHrxcVmAn
— Fortnite Battle Royale News (@FortniteBR) 28 August 2018
This comes after a couple of players managed to get inside, and disappointingly it was empty. Although that’s not unexpected.
We Managed to get inside it (and it was as expected) from r/FortNiteBR
As we know, the purple cube is bouncy. So this anomaly happened while they were having fun on the cube.
Gsonicify said: “It looked like my friend bumped into me right as I was bouncing up. Somehow this f*cked up the Cube’s physics and it let me pass through,
“After that for some reason the collision with it was also pretty messed up.”
The cube is currently still rolling its way through the desert, but God knows where.