Codemasters hacked, personal data stolen

If you have any sort of Codemasters account, you might want to start changing your passwords. The publisher announced that its website was hacked last Friday, and user data compromised.

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If you have any sort of Codemasters account, you might want to start changing your passwords. The developer and publisher has announced that its website was hacked last week, and user data compromised.

On Friday, June 3, a mystery hacker got into the Codemasters.com website, gaining access to the Codemasters EStore, Codemasters CodeM database, and other sites. Codies says that "As soon as the intrusion was detected, we immediately took codemasters.com and associated web services offline in order to prevent any further intrusion." Over the next days, it launched "a thorough investigation in order to ascertain the extent and scope of the breach," and the news isn't good.

The mystery hacker would have gained access to names and addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, encrypted passwords, order histories, screen names, dates of birth, biographies, IP address, Xbox Live Gamertags and more. Codies says while it cannot confirm this data was stolen, it has to assume it was.

E-mails are going out to those who might have been affected, and Codies offers this advice:

For your security, in the first instance we advise you to change any passwords you have associated with other Codemasters accounts. If you use the same login information for other sites, you should change that information too. Furthermore, be extra cautious of potential scams, via email, phone, or post that ask you for personal or sensitive information. Please note that Codemasters will never ask you for any payment data such as credit card numbers or bank account details, nor will Codemasters ask you for passwords or other personal identifying data. Be aware too of fraudulent emails that may outwardly appear to be from Codemasters with links inviting you to visit websites. The safest way to visit your favourite websites is always by typing in the address manually into the address bar of your browser.

The Codemasters website will be down until a new one launches "later this year," instead redirecting to the company's Facebook page. For now, this doesn't have helpful information for those who might be concerned about the hack, mostly listing press coverage of its games.

This comes shortly after Sony finally got back on its feet following the PlayStation Network hack, which also saw user data stolen. As part of making amends, Sony offered $1 million in idendity theft protection. Hopefully Codies will also make gestures beyond mere apologies for those affected by its hack. The Internet's a scary place, kids.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 10, 2011 7:45 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Codemasters hacked, personal data stolen.

    If you have any sort of Codemasters account, you might want to start changing your passwords. The publisher announced that its website was hacked last Friday, and user data compromised.

    • reply
      June 10, 2011 7:50 AM

      I didn't know one could have a Codemasters account, let alone what it would be used for.

    • reply
      June 10, 2011 7:58 AM

      Hacking is going to be the new terrorism.

      • reply
        June 10, 2011 11:11 AM

        Cyber Terrorism!

      • reply
        June 10, 2011 11:12 AM

        Running a multi million dollar company with five dollar security procedures should be considered the new terrorism.

        • reply
          June 11, 2011 9:40 AM

          I was thinking the same thing. All these developers creating these wonderful games with all kinds of technology and experience and they can't even create secure areas within their own framework.

    • reply
      June 10, 2011 8:01 AM

      Ok so I go to edit my password in the codemasters forum and it sends me to their facebook page. Real helpful

      • reply
        June 10, 2011 8:04 AM

        Update* Changing your email or pass is not available yet.

    • reply
      June 10, 2011 8:25 AM

      ok so what do we do if we got this? i didn't even know i had a codemasters account. i guess for operation flashpoint 2? wat da fuk

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      June 10, 2011 8:42 AM

      Good, codemastes sucks. I hope this destroys the company.

    • reply
      June 10, 2011 8:47 AM

      I bet they are using this as an excuse to drop support for Red River

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      June 10, 2011 8:55 AM

      oh for the love of god stop hacking game companies you morons. wtf.

      • reply
        June 10, 2011 10:00 AM

        Agreed.. Its all we have left in this ever downward spiraling world!

    • reply
      June 11, 2011 6:31 AM

      Why do you keep saying people have to change their passwords? They are encrypted and/or hashed on every login in the world (except for phishing sites, of course), and are incredibly hard to reverse-engineer -- in other words, not worth the effort involved when you have the name/addr/email/accts/etc instead. It's easier to sell that data off to ID thieves than to bother wasting days coming up with a single password that matches a single hash.

    • reply
      June 11, 2011 12:33 PM

      Hackers should be trusted they are only after the big evil company not the normal people. All of you should be proud to let them use your personal information for justice.

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