Loading ...Square Enix, which is renowned for its role-playing video game series like The Final Fantasy and the Dragon Quest, admitted recently that hackers managed to get unauthorized access to one of its servers and that 1.8 million member accounts were hacked in the process. The company, however, assured that the hackers could not manage to cull out any credit card information of its members.
Out of the 1.8 million member accounts that were affected, 100,000 belonged to the Japanese while the remaining had been created by the people of the United States. The website that came under attack is named Square Enix Members, which is a free site for Square Enix fans. Square Enix officials became suspicious about the attack on 12 December and the site was subsequently shut down for investigation. The members of the targeted website normally have to use their e-mail addresses but some enter added information like names, addresses and phone numbers.
The magnitude of the damage has not been ascertained as the investigation is still on.
“We are yet to learn whether illegal access was gained to our clients’ information,” a spokesperson said. “But we have asked our customers to be aware of the incident in case they receive suspicious messages using our name.”
The video game industry has witnessed several hacker attacks this year. In the month of April, Sony faced multiple online attacks that led to the closure of its PlayStation Network temporarily for more than a month. At the same time, Square Enix, which is smarting from the recent intrusion by hackers, lost around 25,000 e-mail addresses and 250 job applications in another hacker attack.
