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"Distrust and caution are the parents of security" - Benjamin Franklin
Microsoft, makers of the ubiquitous Xbox gaming console are still looking into an issue with the device’s hard drive that could allow attackers to collect sensitive information about prior users. The investigation started after a group of students from Dakota State University allegedly recovered the credit card information from a refurbished Xbox’s former user earlier
Two minor data breaches affected video game developers Square Enix (Final Fantasy) and Trion Worlds (Rift) late last year, allegedly spilling sensitive information from the company’s servers. The attack against Square Enix hit 1.8 million users – mostly North American and Japanese customers who signed up for the company’s “Square Enix Members” service.
Steam, an online distribution network that hosts countless video game catalogs struck down in November last year after a hacker was able to bypass the site’s message boards and databases. The hackers leaked 35 million customers’ information, including encrypted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card numbers.
Happening almost simultaneously with the hacks at Nintendo, Bethesda, and other firms, the Epic Games hack spilled email addresses and encrypted passwords online and prompted the company to reset all of its users’ passwords.
A cadre of video game companies including Bethesda Softworks, Minecraft and Nintendo was targeted in June when the hacktivist group Lulzsec raided servers belonging to the firms. Bethesda had information on about 200,000 users of its Brink video game pilfered – but not released.
Even casual gamers might be surprised to hear that Sega, the Japanese video game conglomerate synonymous with Sonic the Hedgehog in the early ‘90s, is still around. One big reason it is still around is SegaPass, the company’s online network of flash-based games. The problem for Sega is that Sega Pass, which also doubles as a newsletter service, has been down since last June.
Electronic Arts’ Bioware, creators of MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic and the popular Mass Effect and Dragon Age series had a hacker infiltrate a decade-old server that was hosting the Neverwinter Nights forums in June, 2011.
Executives at Sony probably didn’t anticipate that a lawsuit against technology whiz kid George Hotz would end up backfiring as spectacularly as it did. The missing ingredient?
The past year has seen a sharp increase in attacks aimed at online gaming platforms and game makers. In fact, there was a point last summer, in the wake of Sony’s Playstation Network outage, when it seemed like no video game company was safe from hackers – whether they be ideologically motivated groups like Lulzsec or run-of-the-mill cyber crooks.
Alerts issued by Visa and Mastercard earlier this week suggest that a breach at payment processor Global Payments dates to January 2011, a full year earlier than the company initially announced.
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