For anyone doing business, it should be understood that your business can be at risk of a cyber attack, and in this day and age, it can happen at any point in the business’ life. We often hear about hospitals, city governments and municipals, schools, etc., being targeted and exposed as they’re seen as low hanging fruit, but obviously all industries are susceptible of being attacked. Having said that, an industry that does not typically find the headlines is the gaming industry, but Town of Salem, a popular role-playing game, recently felt the wrath of what cybercriminals are capable of.
According to the Hacker News, a massive data breach at the popular online role-playing game has reportedly impacted more than 7.6 million players, the game owner BlankMediaGames (BMG) confirmed Wednesday on its online forum. With the user base of more than 8 million players, Town of Salem is a browser-based game that enables gamers (which range from 7 to 15 users) to play a version of the famous secret role game Town, Mafia, or Neutrals.
BlankMediaGames discovered the hack on December 28th after their database was uploaded to a hacked search engine, called DeHashed. DeHashed released the following list of personal identifiable information that was apparently leaked:
- Email addresses
- Usernames
- Hashed passwords (in phpass, MD5(WordPress), and MD5(phpBB3) formats)
- IP addresses
- Game and forum activity
- Some payment information (including full names, billing and shipping addresses, IP information and payment amount).
As mentioned, data breach cyber attacks can happen to any company, regardless of size, which makes for updated systems, end user awareness, and having a cyber insurance policy in place, extremely imperative.
Evolve MGA offers cyber insurance that covers policyholders in the event their cloud data is hacked, lost, or stolen. Get appointed with our cyber insurance specialists for a FREE Quote! To read more about the hack on Town of Salem, click here.