There has been a data breach at Activision which has allowed hackers to acquire the username and passwords of the customer’s accounts.
A report by Dexerto states that around 500,000 Activision accounts have been hacked as a result of the leak of user credentials. Cyber criminals are using the credentials to log in to the accounts and change the passwords so that the original owners can’t recover them.
The data breach has been reported by a user whose name on Twitter handle is ‘oRemyy’ and the problem was later confirmed by content creators like TheGamingRevolution, Prototype Warehouse and Okami. A tweet by Okami says that the data breach urged players to change the passwords of their Activision accounts. It said –
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Activision accounts are used by players to log in to the company’s different Call of Duty titles like Warzone, Modern Warfare and Call of Duty Mobile.
But the best way to secure the Activision account is by changing the password as the company does not provide two-factor authentication to secure them. Apart from this, COD players also need to unlink the Battlent, PSN, Xbox Live and other accounts associated with Activision account and also remove the payment details saved over there.
Activision has not yet commented publicly about the breach but it is definitely working to secure its customer’s accounts. Dean Ferrando, who is the Systems engineer manager at Tripwire said that obtaining personal information of the users is surely valuable but it also provides a golden opportunity for the hackers to plan further attacks like phishing. It is important that the involved parties should take necessary steps to reduce the consequences of this incident including changing of passwords of they were used on other accounts apart from Activision.
People who are working in the gaming industry should take this as an opportunity to make their security controls better. A security team should be able to assess the kind of assets available on the network, their secure configuration and their vulnerability posture. The organizations should use this as a wake up call to understand that security is not simply a check box for compliance. Gaming organizations like Activision want to provide a safe and secure space for gamers and not a game over experience.