Epic Says Fortnite User Security Ramping Up

Fortnite, being the biggest game in the world at the moment, is a prime target for hackers and account thieves. Epic claims that there are now more than 250 million Epic accounts out there, which are used across its games, its store, and the Unreal Engine. Though Epic says that its account system has never been compromised (which sort of feels like tempting fate), it has acknowledged that there have been problems with individual accounts being breached.

With that in mind, Epic has announced some new security features for its account system that it'll be implementing soon. The company has published a blog post to its website detailing these new security features, but it started off that post by explaining how accounts are typically compromised. Epic gives the requisite warnings that account holders should be using unique passwords across all of their log ins, as once a password has been breached, it puts all of the accounts that use it as risk.

Epic also suggests in that blog post that users turn on two-factor authentication. Epic has supporedt two-factor authentication for a while now, either through email or through apps like Authy and Google Authenticator. The company says that it will soon add support for SMS authentication as well, and while that may not be as secure as some of the other 2FA methods it supports, it's definitely better than nothing.

To better beef up security, Epic says that it has started checking new account passwords against Have I Been Pwned's "Pwned Passwords list." Epic checks passwords before they're applied to accounts, and if the password a user is attempting to create appears on that list, they're presumably prompted to pick a new one.

Epic also says that it'll soon start requiring email verification for all new accounts. Finally, it'll be adding new ways to detect when an account has been compromised, and in cases where those accounts have been verified via email, it'll automatically lock them down and begin the password-reset process.

So, it sounds like Epic accounts will be getting a lot more secure as we move through 2019, which is definitely a good thing now that Epic has a store for those accounts to access. We'll see if Epic shares any more specifics about what it'll do to enhance security, so stay tuned.