If cyber-security blog KrebsOnSecurity is to be believed, well-known videogame publisher Eidos' highly anticipated Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the latest victim of a security breach. The blog notes that hackers may have managed to steal a great deal of personal information and source codes from publisher Eidos' (now owned by Square Enix Co.) website and that of its upcoming Deus Ex game.
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The attack put Deus Ex: Human Revolution's official website, user forum, and Eidos.com out of service for several hours early Thursday morning before order was restored. This was preceded by a defacement banner that read "Owned by Chippy1337" plastered on the homepage sometime during Wednesday evening. Based on the chat logs allegedly belonging to a hacker calling himself "ev0", KrebsOnSecurity cites the hacker boasting about stealing personal information of at least 80,000 subscribers, as well as 9,000 resumes from the Deus Ex website. The chat logs also include the possibility of leaking the "src", which may culminate into another Crysis 2 like leak of an early build of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Circumstantial evidence and recent developments suggest that AnonOps - a splinter group of the Anonymous hacker collective - may be behind the high-profile attacks. Recent reports suggest that Anonymous control networks (IRC channels) were taken over by a 17 year old hacker from the United Kingdom going by the handle "Ryan". However, recent developments saw AnonOps members speaking out against Ryan; hinting at further factions being formed in the hacker group that broke away from Anonymous. It is difficult to tell fact from rumours and allegations at this juncture, but it is amply evident that Anonymous' hacktivism, devoid of a clear hierarchy, seems plagued by some members who are in it for not-so-noble intentions.
The current spate of security breaches suffered by the video game industry should give gamers the creeps while signing up for online gaming services. The recent hacking attacks such as the one against Sony's PSN network makes one wonder if sharing credit card details and other sensitive information is worth the risk at all. Professional hackers, who make a profit out of pilfering and trading personal information, seem to have discovered an untapped potential in videogame industry's nascent digital content distribution models and micro-economies incorporated within modern online videogames. Let's hope the wide media coverage and public outrage against the PSN hack and the involvement of FBI sets a precedent for better security practices being adopted by videogame portals that users trust with their financial information.
techtree.com
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The attack put Deus Ex: Human Revolution's official website, user forum, and Eidos.com out of service for several hours early Thursday morning before order was restored. This was preceded by a defacement banner that read "Owned by Chippy1337" plastered on the homepage sometime during Wednesday evening. Based on the chat logs allegedly belonging to a hacker calling himself "ev0", KrebsOnSecurity cites the hacker boasting about stealing personal information of at least 80,000 subscribers, as well as 9,000 resumes from the Deus Ex website. The chat logs also include the possibility of leaking the "src", which may culminate into another Crysis 2 like leak of an early build of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Circumstantial evidence and recent developments suggest that AnonOps - a splinter group of the Anonymous hacker collective - may be behind the high-profile attacks. Recent reports suggest that Anonymous control networks (IRC channels) were taken over by a 17 year old hacker from the United Kingdom going by the handle "Ryan". However, recent developments saw AnonOps members speaking out against Ryan; hinting at further factions being formed in the hacker group that broke away from Anonymous. It is difficult to tell fact from rumours and allegations at this juncture, but it is amply evident that Anonymous' hacktivism, devoid of a clear hierarchy, seems plagued by some members who are in it for not-so-noble intentions.
The current spate of security breaches suffered by the video game industry should give gamers the creeps while signing up for online gaming services. The recent hacking attacks such as the one against Sony's PSN network makes one wonder if sharing credit card details and other sensitive information is worth the risk at all. Professional hackers, who make a profit out of pilfering and trading personal information, seem to have discovered an untapped potential in videogame industry's nascent digital content distribution models and micro-economies incorporated within modern online videogames. Let's hope the wide media coverage and public outrage against the PSN hack and the involvement of FBI sets a precedent for better security practices being adopted by videogame portals that users trust with their financial information.
techtree.com
