Electronic Arts becomes latest gaming hack attack victim
Electronic Arts has found itself to be the latest victim of 2011 to be hit by hackers. Welcome to the club, EA, which already includes Sony, Nintendo, the U.S. government and countless other sites worldwide.
According to The Wall Street Journal, EA didn't specify who is responsible for the attack, which apparently hit EA's "Neverwinter Nights" message board. But so far it looks that personal data (including credit card information) wasn't exposed:
The Redwood City, Calif.-based videogame maker posted an undated message on its website describing a "highly sophisticated and unlawful cyberattack" on its BioWare division that allowed hackers to steal information including names, encrypted passwords, email addresses and birth dates.
Details about this attack will likely pan out in the next few days, including possibly where the attack stemmed from and what security precautions EA will implement to prevent such an incident in the future.
Although it can be argued that hacking attacks on major corporate and government websites are just getting more press than they used to, there's also something to be said that security on these sites are far more lax than acceptable. Not to mention that it's probably going to cost these companies and organizations more to patch up after security breaches than if proper procedures had been set up in advance.
Furthermore, based on the abundance and lack of uniformity when it comes to targets, it is difficult to determine the motives behind the attackers, who often refer to themselves these days as "hacktivists."
Related:
- Plants vs Zombies maker PopCap rumored to be acquired by EA
- LulzSec releases deluge of private Arizona law enforcement information
- LulzSec: Doing it more for the money than the lulz?
- Former DHS chief Chertoff: LulzSec, Anonymous pose big challenges
- LulzSec: "We might be brought to justice, but we just don't care."