Codemasters Hacked

[Yoshi]

Last Friday, some malevolent entity got into codemasters.com, and obtained access to information on the Dirt 3 code redemption page, the E Store, and the CodeM database. The publisher sent out an email today warning users about the site's code having been mastered.

The hacker was able to access information including customer names, addresses, and email addresses (but not payment information), and passwords, along with Xbox Live Gamertags and IP addresses. Codemasters shut its site down immediately upon detecting the intrusion. A new website will launch later this year, with Codemasters planning to redirect to its Facebook page in the meantime.

"Whilst we do not have confirmation that any of this data was downloaded onto an external device," Codies said in the email to users, "we have to assume that, as access was gained, all of these details were compromised and/or stolen." You can read the full email after the break ... right after you change your password anywhere that you had been using the same one you used on the Codies site.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Dear valued Codemasters customer,

On Friday 3rd June, unauthorised entry was gained to our Codemasters.com website. As soon as the intrusion was detected, we immediately took codemasters.com and associated web services offline in order to prevent any further intrusion.

During the days since the attack we have conducted a thorough investigation in order to ascertain the extent and scope of the breach and have regrettably discovered that the intruder was able to gain access to the following:

Codemasters.com website

Access to the Codemasters corporate website and sub-domains.

DiRT 3 VIP code redemption page

Access to the DiRT 3 VIP code redemption page.

The Codemasters EStore

We believe the following have been compromised: Customer names and addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, encrypted passwords and order history. Please note that no personal payment information was stored with Codemasters as we use external payment providers, meaning your payment details were not at risk from this intrusion.

Codemasters CodeM database

Members' names, usernames, screen names, email addresses, date of birth, encrypted passwords, newsletter preferences, any biographies entered by users, details of last site activity, IP addresses and Xbox Live Gamertags are all believed to have been compromised.

Whilst we do not have confirmation that any of this data was actually downloaded onto an external device, we have to assume that, as access was gained, all of these details were compromised and/or stolen.

The Codemasters.com website will remain offline for the foreseeable future with all Codemasters.com traffic re-directed to the Codemasters Facebook page instead. A new website will launch later in the year.

Advice

For your security, in the first instance we advise you to change any passwords you have associated with other Codemasters accounts. If you use the same login information for other sites, you should change that information too. Furthermore, be extra cautious of potential scams, via email, phone, or post that ask you for personal or sensitive information. Please note that Codemasters will never ask you for any payment data such as credit card numbers or bank account details, nor will Codemasters ask you for passwords or other personal identifying data. Be aware too of fraudulent emails that may outwardly appear to be from Codemasters with links inviting you to visit websites. The safest way to visit your favourite websites is always by typing in the address manually into the address bar of your browser.

Unfortunately, Codemasters is the latest victim in on-going targeted attacks against numerous game companies. We assure you that we are doing everything within our legal means to track down the perpetrators and take action to the full extent of the law.

We apologise for this incident and regret any inconvenience caused.

We are contacting all customers who may have been affected directly.

Should you have any concerns or wish to speak to a member of our Customer Services team, please email them atcustservice@codemasters.com.

I got an e-mail from Codemasters as well, since I apparently had an ID on their system (no idea why or from when). This made me go through every important bookmark I have to confirm that all the passwords are different. I found a few that weren't, but they are now.

ProTip: A good way to have different passwords but be able to remember them without writing them down or storing them is to use a system, e.g. five characters common everywhere followed by three characters for the site's inititals or something. Perhaps you could use sh33pTNL here for example but then use sh33pAXP for American Express.

[Chux]

I'd put money on this being retaliation to the "Project 10 Dollar Horned Owl" they had on Dirt 3, and not turning it off while the PSN was down.

MK turned off the pass when the store was unavailable so that people could still play.

[YellerDog]

WTF is this "consumer retaliation" thing lately? Fierce!

Entitled babies with computer skills everywhaar.

[Opaque]

I'm really not surprised.

Games cost $60 now and they're only 80% complete out the door and you have to spend, in many cases, just as much on that last 20%. People who have been playing games since expansions were first being introduced remember a time when $50 bought you a full game and then later $30 bought you just as much additional contend. Now you have ten maps on MW2 at the same price as the entire full game, which is a joke when all things are considered. Of course people are going to be mad, they're being taken advantage of. Granted this isn't life or death, but they're still being taken advantage of.

[YellerDog]

So find another god-damned hobby, Jesus. This is worse than when Lionel Trains introduced their tiered pricing model on miniature shrubbery.

[YellerDog]

Lives were ruined.

[Yoshi]

My opinion is that these asshats are just looking for an excuse. You can rationalize it any way you want, but these are just pirates with more know how. They feel entitled to fuck up whatever they want, so they do it without thought for the consequences, especially for others.

[Opaque]

So find another god-damned hobby, Jesus.

This is a pretty shitty way to live your life.

Someone starts to distort and ruin the thing you love so you just walk away?

My opinion is that these asshats are just looking for an excuse. You can rationalize it any way you want, but these are just pirates with more know how. They feel entitled to fuck up whatever they want, so they do it without thought for the consequences, especially for others.

Make no mistake I don't endorse what they're doing and I, really, have no idea how to do any of this shit and am in no way a part of this. I can see though how some people might get frustrated with a company that's selling you part of a product on purpose, that wouldn't work anywhere else. If movies were released in theaters but you had a to buy a second ticket at the same price to see the final twenty minutes people would lose their shit.

[YellerDog]

Yes! What are you, special? Nobody owes you shit. Deal with it. Buy a game or don't.

Entitlement all up ins.

[Opaque]

That's really just a stupid way to view the word.

If every great revolutionary had your beliefs we'd still be part of England and we'd still have slaves. If you don't like something try to force change, these guys might be going after a target of minimal importance, and they might be dicks about how they're going about it, but at least they're not just taking it in the ass.