BioWare's "regret" over forum hack
EA promises to bolster security.
BioWare Edmonton studio GM Aaryn Flynn has expressed his regret over last week's "highly sophisticated and unlawful cyber attack" suffered by BioWare's server system supporting the Neverwinter Nights forums.
In an email to users, Flynn told fans "we take the security of your information very seriously and regret any inconvenience this may have caused you".
18,000 accounts were affected - "a very small percentage of total users".
Credit card information was not compromised, Flynn said. User names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, mailing addresses, names, phone numbers, CD keys and birth dates from forum accounts on the system may have compromised, however.
BioWare also said other information you may have associated with your EA Account may also have been compromised. Because of this, the Mass Effect and Dragon Age maker has forced a password change.
Last week's Neverwinter Nights forum hack came amid a spate of attacks on video game company servers.
Recent attacks on Sony, Bethesda, Codemasters, Sega, Minecraft, Eve Online and Square Enix all saw user data compromised.
EA has set up a Neverwinter Nights forum breach FAQ.
Why did this happen? asks the FAQ. "While we have security controls in place, even the best software and processes can’t keep up with hackers 100 per cent of the time," EA replied. "We have moved swiftly to implement additional security controls to prevent this type of breach from happening again to secure your data and are conducting further evaluations now."
