Gaming firm suffers data breach (From Salisbury Journal)

Gaming firm suffers data breach

6:57pm Friday 10th June 2011 in National News © Press Association 2011

Tens of thousands of people may have fallen victim to internet hackers in the latest major cyber attack on a computer games giant.

Personal details - which potentially include names, addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth - were stolen during the Codemasters security breach which comes after a spate of similar break-ins, including two against Sony.

The company has now taken its website off line, following the intrusion last Friday.

A subsequent investigation revealed passwords, IP addresses, XBox gamer tags and biographies were also stolen.

Codemasters said it had emailed every customer ever registered on the site in the wake of the data theft.

It insisted no payment details had been compromised.

Offering its apologies for the security breach, the firm urged users to be "extra cautious of potential scams, via email, phone, or post that ask you for personal or sensitive information".

"Unfortunately, Codemasters is the latest victim in ongoing targeted attacks against numerous game companies," it told recipients of the letter.

"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."

Users of the website were also encouraged to change any passwords "associated with other Codemasters accounts". Spokesman Rich Eddy said the company still had no idea who targeted the site but said the attack could "quite possibly" affect tens of thousands of people.