Epic Games has announced that it will soon offer 2-factor verification for user accounts via SMS and email to improve security. The developer of Fortnite revealed this information in a recent blog post while revealing that there are more than 250,000,00 total Epic accounts. Providing security to these accounts is the company’s top priority.
The security of Epic accounts has been questioned many times in the past but Epic says that it has never been compromised. However, the company did admit that individual accounts have been compromised due to hackers using different passwords/combinations leaked from other sites. That’s because of the players using the same email/password combinations on different platforms or services.
Afterward, the company stated the reason why newcomers are finding their accounts already linked with Epic Games. It is because of the recent botnet attack which resulted in millions of invalid and inactive accounts being made from email addresses.
Epic is currently rectifying the issue by deleting these inactive accounts. Those who are encountering this problem are advised to use the reset password option in order to gain the account back.
Epic is planning to release 2-factor authorization soon to prevent such things from happening again in the future.
Below are the things which Epic recommends you to do:
- Always choose a strong password when creating online accounts on any platform, including Epic Games. Use a unique password for each account. Use a password generator or password manager to keep track of passwords, rather than using passwords that are short and simple.
- Epic account is only as secure as the external accounts attached to it, because if an external account is compromised, it can be used to log into your Epic account. It’s important to take all of the same security precautions with your attached external accounts that you would with regard to your Epic account. Utilizing unique passwords and enabling MFA on your external accounts (Playstation Network, Xbox Live, Nintendo, Facebook, Google) is the best way to remain secure
As for SMS based authentication, there’s no word on when it’s going to be available. Moreover, in the future, email verification will be mandatory upon every new account being created. Until then, players can verify their email addresses manually.
Long story short, Epic accounts are getting more secure than ever throughout 2019. Everyone with an Epic account or those thinking to make one in the future should take full advantage of extra security measures like 2FA.
