Words With Friends Hack Exposes Data of Over 200 Million Players
Mobile gaming giant Zynga is currently investigating a cyber attack that it claims has accessed the account information from millions of players for some of its most popular games. This is nothing new for digital companies, and allegedly not the first time this particular hacker has committed a similar security breach.
While Zynga is the current target of this hacker, the person claiming responsibility has also been in the news before, having stolen data from 16 separate websites and compiled information from nearly a billion user accounts. When a mobile game company like Zynga has a security issue, it could mean anything from personal contact info to payment information.
The specific games in question, as outlined by a Zynga press release on the topic, states that both Draw Something and Words With Friends were targets of the recent cyber attack. According to the claims of the hacker, the breach on Words With Friends alone resulted in the acquisition of 218 million user accounts. It appears as though the information gathered is limited to e-mails, user IDs, and passwords, but for many users, losing their password can be a huge security breach, especially if they use the same password for multiple accounts.
In its player security announcement, Zynga has claimed that it is working with law enforcement along with cyber security consultants in order to strengthen its security in the future. This does not, however, mean that it can get the data back from anyone whose accounts were affected by the attack, which could be anyone who installed Words With Friends and signed up for an account on any Android or iOS devices before September 2nd, 2019. Any players who may think that their information has been compromised should immediately change their passwords and make sure they aren't using the same password on any other accounts.
Cyber security is a difficult problem to tackle, between new advanced forms of AI and algorithms cropping up across the far reaches of the internet, it's hard to know if one's information can truly be protected. On one hand, it's the responsibility of these companies to work make sure that their customers are protected from cyber threats as long as they use their systems, however there is plenty that each individual can do to ensure their safety online. Making sure that no two passwords are ever the same is massively important, but added security is fairly affordable through anti-virus programs and a personal VPN.
Words With Friends is available on Android and iOS devices.
Source: The Hacker News
Post a Comment