Ex-Blizzard security expert squashes Apex Legends hack fears following ALGS attack

Former Blizzard cyber security expert, hacker, and Twitch streamer Jason ‘Pirate Software’ Hall squashed Apex Legends player’s fears about potentially being hacked following an ALGS attack.

Multiple players were hacked during a North American ALGS match on March 17. The league has been delayed following the incident, and Respawn has yet to announce how it happened or if the vulnerability has been fixed at the time of writing.

The hack has caused Apex Legends’ player count to drop as people uninstall the game over fears of being hacked and their information stolen.

Former Blizzard cyber security expert and Twitch streamer Pirate Software discussed the hack and its impact on March 18 and also tried to squash player’s fear of the incident.

Apex Legends players fear being hacked

After breaking down the incident on his stream the creator told his viewers that uninstalling the game for a few days is a good idea while we wait for more information about the hack from Respawn. He also cautioned against spreading “needless fear” while the world waits to understand what exactly went down during the ALGS match.

“Being off of a game for two days is not a big deal. That being said, the people who are targeted here are very high-profile people. If it was absolutely RCE inside of Apex Legends, which is unlikely to me right now, it be would likely that they hit the entire player base at once,” Pirate Software said 15 minutes into the video.

RCE is remote code execution and is what the hacker claims they used to give the ALGS pros cheats during the match.

The streamer elaborated by saying that if the hacker, who has pulled these kinds of high-profile stunts in Apex before, had found such a massive vulnerability there wouldn’t be a reason to not hit everyone at once and save it just for these pro players.

Pirate Software’s main takeaway from the hack and the hacker’s previous work in Apex is to wait. He said there are many different ways this kind of exploit could happen outside of RCE, like the player’s computers were compromised in some way through malware.

While Respawn has yet to come forward with a statement on the hack outside of announcing the league’s postponement, its anti-cheat maker has said the problem is not on their end. Other titles also protected under the same company, Easy Anti-Cheat, have backed up the company’s claims.