EA and Bioware servers attacked

[Kilgengoor]

It was bound to happen. I just received an email from Bioware noticing of an attack in both Bioware and Electronic Arts servers that might have compromised sensitive data. I guess some news will be officially posted on this site, but in the meantime just haul ass and change your passwords ASAP just to be safe.

Copying the email in spoiler form. Don't know if it's legitimate, but if it passed the spam filters would be wise to give it a chance.

Spoiler

We recently learned that hackers gained unauthorized access to the decade-old BioWare server system supporting the Neverwinter Nights forums. We immediately took appropriate steps to protect our consumers? data and launched a thorough ongoing evaluation of the breach. We have determined that no credit card data was compromised from the servers, nor did we ever have or store sensitive data like social security numbers. Our investigation shows that information such as user names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, mailing addresses, names, phone numbers, CD keys and birth dates from these forum accounts on the system may have been compromised, as well as other information (if any) that you may have associated with your EA Account. In an abundance of caution, we have changed your password to ensure account security. Please visit this https://www.ea.com/ad/profile/reset-password?token=INbCdD6FAe0ND8AcYXJcXDTeNMOK5XneX5tw-aW01Aelaof7iVJvPSDxNfUDzhfMb074kEl8ggPBzWkljO5zMA..&locale=en_AD to reset your password immediately.

If your link has expired, click here to generate a new email.

We take the security of your information very seriously and regret any inconvenience this may have caused you. If your username, email address and/or password on your EA account are similar to those you use on other sites, we recommend changing the password at those sites as well. We advise all of our fans to always be aware of any suspicious emails or account activity and report any suspicious emails and account activity to Customer Support at 1-877-357-6007.

If you have questions, please visit our FAQ at http://support.ea.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5367/ or contact Customer Support at the phone number above.

Aaryn Flynn
Studio GM, BioWare Edmonton
VP, Electronic Arts

 

[Yassen]

I got that to and already changed it. Nice to see EA has learned from what happened to Sony and immediately sent an email.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

well now I have motivation to actually fix my account information.

pretty sure the email I have associated with EA is the one that has been dead for quite some time now, so even if the data was stolen it would have zero impact on me.

 

[Kilgengoor]

I can't seem to be able to access my EA profile, although it could be I just forgot the password due to having four or five or six floating around since the last time they got into my WoW account. Waiting for the e-mail to change my password.

Ah well, that'll teach me about buying DLC from Bioware / EA's store. Hope I can get to it in time.

 

[Mr Dizazta]

I am seriously getting upset with these damn hackers attacking gaming sites. I swear they are attack like a bunch of children.

 

[Kilgengoor]

Still waiting for that goddamn e-mail. Come on EA, I know your servers will be pretty much frying right now and I know you must be skimming through them to assert the severity of the breach, but there's a credit card number I'd like to protect sometime, if that's not a problem.

 

[lovest harding]

My first link said it was invalid and I'm still waiting for them send me another e-mail.
This is getting more and more ridiculous.
So help me if this is lulzsec hacking again only to give information back (or threatening that they won't give it back unless BioWare does something that they want) I quit the internet. >>

 

[Kilgengoor]

I wonder if this will teach all these fuckers (distributors) to ditch their online DRM.

Or consumers to not purchase games with that stuff.

Uh... won't that make them take HARDER security measures? I don't think this involves DRM at all, anyway. It's standard account safety. In any case, I can pretty much see me carrying over 20 different Authenticators in my keychain in a short term, or having them in my mobile phone. I guess that's what we get when assholes want to act as such.

Mail still isn't arriving. I'm gonna give it 30 more minutes before calling EA.

 

[Kilgengoor]

Oh, if any of you gets the e-mail in the meanwhile please let us know. Sorry for the pseudo-DP but I find important to bump this thread in the meanwhile.

 

[Rhayn]

So, if I'm reading this e-mail right, only thing compromised was the NWN-forum and the data stored on it, thus, as long as you don't have any account on that, you should be safe, no?

And yes, I got the email aswell.

 

[Kilgengoor]

So, if I'm reading this e-mail right, only thing compromised was the NWN-forum and the data stored on it, thus, as long as you don't have any account on that, you should be safe, no?

And yes, I got the email aswell.

Well, those forums have admittedly some connection to the EA accounts, and if they have attacked the NWN servers they can also have reached the accounts. The NWN forum servers seem to have been the entry point since it's a "decade old" server network which may have served as a spearhead into more important servers. It's a first aftermath, but I'd change the passwords while they assert how much data can be compromised.

Got the e-mail, changed the password. EA's site is awfully slow for me, I don't know if it's because of a lot of users changing passwords simultaneously or a hint of a DoS attack.

Sorry if I sound hysterical, but you can never be safe with those in Lulzsec. They tend to map a whole network before an attack so they can extract the most information at a time. the Bethesda attack has proved it, so better be safe.

 

[Herr Ludd]

Its starting to feel like hackers hate gamers, they steal our account information and brings down our gaming networks. Cant they just get arrested already so we can game in peace.

 

[Hafnium]

I've gotten the e-mail, going to check it out now.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I am seriously getting upset with these damn hackers attacking gaming sites. I swear they are attack like a bunch of children.

This.

and if this was done just for the lulz or something like that I really hope those Hackers get to burn in hell, as this is really annoying.

If this is to point out security risks, then well I am still not liking it, as there are better ways to show this to the company.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Someone put this up on here ages ago and I was like...I haven't had an email.

Nice to know they are speedy over there...I changed my pass when I saw the post on here and changed it again when I got the letter.

I actually double checked whether it was real or not and relogged into the EA site rather than going through the mail just in case.

 

[Mr Dizazta]

I am seriously getting upset with these damn hackers attacking gaming sites. I swear they are attack like a bunch of children.

This.

and if this was done just for the lulz or something like that I really hope those Hackers get to burn in hell, as this is really annoying.

If this is to point out security risks, then well I am still not liking it, as there are better ways to show this to the company.

There wouldn't be an issue with security risks if hackers stopped attacking gaming sites just for the lulz. It is really frustrating as I just had to reset my password on my BSN/EA account. I feel like if these hackers are doing it for the betterment of the industry, then are acting like a bunch of pretentious pricks. By doing this crap, they are alienating the consumers of the industry.

In addition, as a computer engineering major myself, I can't but feel that the skills I am learning are just going to end up being used for some evil purposes. Just because you have the skills to do something, doesn't mean that you should do it. I mean if I have the ability to kill a little kid, does that mean that I should? Hell no!

 

[BigDeadMushy]

For those interested in the latest developments in the 'hack-war' that is happening right now,might get a kick out of this.
The person(vigilante?) known only as Th3J35t3r reports as follows:

th3j35t3r Tickety Tock Tock
www.lulzsecurity.com - TANGO DOWN - 'this is General Hummel, from Alcatraz, Out' - pastebin.com/76TsPHeU for the lulz.

-worth noting,the lulzsec crew (and associates) allegedly (I can neither confirm nor deny) borrowed this phrase from Jester,mainly for it's simplicity in getting the message across.-

That the live site is down (at time of writing) I confirmed for myself,was greeted with a little message that reads thusly :

This page (http://lulzsecurity.com/) is currently offline. However, because the site uses CloudFlare's Always Online? technology you can continue to surf a snapshot of the site. We will keep checking in the background and, as soon as the site comes back, you will automatically be served the live version. Alternatively, you can retry the live version.
Always Online? powered by CloudFlare | Hide this Alert

The best way to keep track is to look in on the public twitter feeds of the groups in question every once in a while. It doesn't matter whether you do this to stay informed or to chuckle at whoever is perceived to be on the back foot.


EDIT: reposted here from another hackwar-related thread,and will probably end up doing the same in other hackwar-related threads.the people must know!

 

[ecoho]

well now I have motivation to actually fix my account information.

pretty sure the email I have associated with EA is the one that has been dead for quite some time now, so even if the data was stolen it would have zero impact on me.

lol i hope the basterds got mine i use hotmail for EA and lets face it no one comes out of a hotmail account without a virus

 

[ResonanceSD]

I am seriously getting upset with these damn hackers attacking gaming sites. I swear they are attack like a bunch of children.

This.

and if this was done just for the lulz or something like that I really hope those Hackers get to burn in hell, as this is really annoying.

If this is to point out security risks, then well I am still not liking it, as there are better ways to show this to the company.

It's like a pyromaniac burns down someone's house to teach them how flammable it is, rather than just f*ing telling them. It isn't funny, and it's getting old.