Hackers Attack Electronic Arts Site

newtab:

(Reuters) - Cyber hackers have breached an Electronic Arts Inc website and may have taken user information such as birth dates, phone numbers and mailing addresses, the company said on its website on Friday.
Electronic Arts is the latest victim in a spate of global cyber attacks waged against video game companies. Last week, Sega Sammy Holdings Inc reported that user information had been stolen from 1.3 million customers, while Sony Corp is still grappling with the massive breach that compromised the data of more than 100 million of its video game users in April.

Electronic Arts was not immediately available for comment on Friday. No hacker group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The video game publisher posted a set of questions and answers on its website addressing the attack, which hit a server for EA's Bioware studio in Edmonton, Canada. The hacked website was associated with the fantasy game "Neverwinter Nights."

The company said no credit card data or social security numbers were taken but other sensitive information may have been breached by hackers.

"Our investigation shows that information such as user names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, mailing addresses, names, phone numbers, CD keys and birth dates from accounts on the server system associated with Neverwinter Nights may have been compromised," the company said on its website.

EA offered tips to consumers to avoid identity theft and directed users to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Internet fraud website.

EA shares were trading 0.3 percent lower at $21.84 on the Nasdaq on Friday.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

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Comments

[baby Twitty]

07:41 AM on 06/28/2011

EA HACKED?
OMG ROFL
IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!

[SlurmsMcKenzie]

01:26 PM on 06/27/2011

could someone make the madden games stop, please . I would rather play a John madden sim, where you feed him his meds and beer and sausages for breakfast, then nap and dream about that hot lady from the Ace hardware and then irrationly berate the paperboy over his draft choices. Maybe adult diaper changing mini-game... Way better game the Madden '12..

[Kenan Ylmaz]

09:30 AM on 06/26/2011

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[metropolitan]

11:48 PM on 06/25/2011

yer link is broken on the tech page for this story

[sjqp2100]

08:22 PM on 06/25/2011

I'll bet it's because they have refused to bring the price of Madden 11 down from $60 - in previous years the price of Madden was cut in half right after the Super Bowl.

http://www.sjquikpro2100.com/rssfeed.php

[honky1234]

07:10 PM on 06/25/2011

"EA offered tips to consumers to avoid identity theft..."

Such as not doing business with EA?

[DesperateAmateurs]

06:01 PM on 06/25/2011

Why would anyone sign up for these games. I miss just putting a disk in and playing against the computer.

[eljefefx]

06:27 PM on 06/25/2011

Because they are fun. Give it a try, as it sounds like the last game you played was Pong.

[HamburgerTime]

01:47 AM on 06/26/2011

Because they force you to in some cases. Usually if you decide to go online with whatever game you've got, or if you want to buy add-on content (especially through PC). I have an EA account, and I would really rather not.

[masterdaddy0]

03:00 PM on 06/25/2011

Maybe hack Gameloft next and put up a sale on the Appstore. $6.99 for a iOS games that are blatant ripoffs of other games is ridiculous.

[Keyop]

09:06 AM on 06/25/2011

Are the hackers trying to steal EAs secrets to making crappy games?

[Dragonlupin]

11:32 AM on 06/25/2011

That's not really a secret, all you do is buy out game companies that make good games and change everything.

[quedog]

06:53 PM on 06/25/2011

u are correct their games suck
AND THEY GET HACKED BIG TIME WITH CHEATS AND SUCH

[imonlyhereforthelaughs]

07:46 PM on 06/25/2011

It was actually BioWare's Edmonton division website (BioWare is partnered with EA). Specifically their Neverwinter Nights website...Neverwinter Nights actually dies not suck. It is one of those games all other RPGs are compared against. And it was released years before EA and BioWare partnered.

Learn to research, noob.

[Keyop]

09:05 AM on 06/25/2011

When is Colecovision going to have its reel to reels hacked?

[Inaquous]

08:39 AM on 06/25/2011

I seriously doubt any of the attacks on gaming sites has/had anything to do with gaining access to user data. More likely, when taking the timing into consideration (Hello!, E3) they were trying to get access to game code.

None of these companies would say that. It would spook investors far worse to think their code was stolen than to announce a breach in user data.

[Abby1]

02:34 PM on 06/25/2011

That sounds logical. However, it might be possible they were going for the more serious stuff like credit cards and other person information. Last night I was on an EA website playing a multi-player game. One person typed in an unusual IM message to the group of players. That person wanted to know everyone's age. The person started the IM by saying he/she want to guess everyone's age. The person kept sending more IMs to get people to reveal their ages. No one responded to this person. In about 5-10 minutes the person left. Before, the person left, several of players involved in the game decided to stop playing.

[Rylan Kinnell]

08:16 PM on 06/26/2011

If they are capable of stealing data I'm sure they are just as capable of googling stolen data by name...Harassing people for their age in game sounds like to much work.

[Anonani]

07:34 AM on 06/25/2011

Why? (1) Because they can (2) Because they are criminals.

[cyoohoos]

07:15 AM on 06/25/2011

Who gives a gaming site accurate info to begin with? You don't need to know my bday or my ssn. Heck, I rarely even use my real name.

[webdesignct]

01:42 AM on 06/27/2011

I agree

[Hammerlock]

05:42 AM on 06/25/2011

Nice touch making the headline link 'accidentally' redirect to a blank/invalid page.

[StephenJK]

02:54 AM on 06/25/2011

Yes!! More hacktivism! So altrusitic and righteous! Not about stealing personal data and selling it! NO WAY!!! Nope, this is true blue, righteous hacktivism! It's all about exposing big, bad VIDEO GAME companies!! I need more exclamation points!!!! Damn, I just ran out.