Esports players were held hostage by cheating programs.
The finals of the North American division of the popular esports discipline Apex Legends was abruptly suspended due to a violation of the "competitive integrity" of the game.
An unknown attacker somehow implanted cheating programs on the computers of professional players - aimbots (for automatic targeting) and wallhacks (for viewing opponents through obstacles) right during the final matches of the tournament. The situation worsened when one of the players was blocked for using the aimbot cheat before the organizers decided to suspend all competitions.
Soon after the incident, rumors began to spread on social networks about a possible large-scale hacking of Apex Legends security systems, affecting not only the esports community, but also the entire gaming audience as a whole. In social networks, players report detecting viruses on their computers after scanning, but there is no confirmation yet that this is directly related to the mentioned hack.
At the moment, it is not known who exactly committed the hack. However, there are suggestions about the involvement of the hacker Destroyer2009, who previously attacked Apex Legends esports players. According to unconfirmed reports, the attacker used the vulnerability to remotely run malicious code on the computers of tournament players.
The situation around the incident remains uncertain. Respawn and publisher EA limited themselves to postponing the finals, without making any official statements. Some influential streamers recommend that you refrain from launching Apex Legends until the problem is resolved, but there have been no calls for a mass uninstall of the game yet.
The introduction of cheating programs into the accounts of professional esports players in order to disrupt a major tournament and then ban one of the participants goes beyond the usual cheating in games. Developers from Respawn will have to carefully study the root causes of the incident and announce specific measures to restore security and correct the current situation as soon as possible.
Adding to the concern is the recent dismissal of 23 Respawn employees, including Apex Legends developers, which may indicate the need to strengthen the game's security team.
The finals of the North American division of the popular esports discipline Apex Legends was abruptly suspended due to a violation of the "competitive integrity" of the game.
An unknown attacker somehow implanted cheating programs on the computers of professional players - aimbots (for automatic targeting) and wallhacks (for viewing opponents through obstacles) right during the final matches of the tournament. The situation worsened when one of the players was blocked for using the aimbot cheat before the organizers decided to suspend all competitions.
Soon after the incident, rumors began to spread on social networks about a possible large-scale hacking of Apex Legends security systems, affecting not only the esports community, but also the entire gaming audience as a whole. In social networks, players report detecting viruses on their computers after scanning, but there is no confirmation yet that this is directly related to the mentioned hack.
At the moment, it is not known who exactly committed the hack. However, there are suggestions about the involvement of the hacker Destroyer2009, who previously attacked Apex Legends esports players. According to unconfirmed reports, the attacker used the vulnerability to remotely run malicious code on the computers of tournament players.
The situation around the incident remains uncertain. Respawn and publisher EA limited themselves to postponing the finals, without making any official statements. Some influential streamers recommend that you refrain from launching Apex Legends until the problem is resolved, but there have been no calls for a mass uninstall of the game yet.
The introduction of cheating programs into the accounts of professional esports players in order to disrupt a major tournament and then ban one of the participants goes beyond the usual cheating in games. Developers from Respawn will have to carefully study the root causes of the incident and announce specific measures to restore security and correct the current situation as soon as possible.
Adding to the concern is the recent dismissal of 23 Respawn employees, including Apex Legends developers, which may indicate the need to strengthen the game's security team.
