In a statement made where their forum page used to be, OP Productions, publishers of The War Z, say that hackers have infiltrated the databases for the game and forums, gaining access to player information. In response, the game has been taken offline while they investigate the system vulnerabilities that led to the infiltration.
"We are sorry to report that we have discovered that hackers gained access to our forum and game databases and the player data in those databases. We have launched a thorough investigation covering our entire system to determine the scope of the intrusion. This investigation is ongoing and is our top priority. As part of the remediation and security enhancement process we will be taking the game and forums down temporarily."
Hackers gained access to email addresses, character names and IP addresses, along with encrypted passwords for both forums and the game. OP Productions also note that: "If you posted other information to the forum it is likely that such data was accessed as well. We do not collect the names or addresses of our gamers so that information was not impacted unless you posted it on the forum."
OP Productions are adamant that no payment information was stolen, saying that all transactions were made through a third-party, and so ensuring that the hackers had no exposure to that data. While all password types were encrypted, they admit that simple passwords could be brute forced: "Our research shows that many users are not using strong passwords."
Standard hacker aftermath procedures apply: if you had a War Z account, change your passwords, and if you were using the same password anywhere else, change that too. Just pretend we're back in 2011, when we had to do this sort of thing every other week.
Thanks, Eurogamer.
