Reports surfaced of a major data breach in the popular online game Neopetsby a hacker who currently holds information and accounts for ransom.
Neopets announced online, “Neopets recently became aware that customer data may have been stolen. We immediately launched an investigation assisted by a leading investigative firm. We are also engaging law enforcement and improving protections for our systems and our user data.” It added: “It appears that email addresses and passwords used to access Neopets accounts may have been affected. We strongly recommend that you change your Neopets password. If you use the same password on other websites, we recommend that you also change these passwords.”
Neopets fan site JellyNeo reported that the hacker is holding 69 million user accounts for ransom, demanding 4 bitcoin (about $100,000) in exchange for them. Neopets announced that it is working with law enforcement and conducting its own investigation into the hack. No further information is provided.
Recent cyberattacks on video games
This is not the first hacking problem the game has encountered. A hack in 2016 saw tens of millions of accounts leaked to the benefit of hackers and more malicious players, who weaponized the availability of data to steal from each other. In 2020, online gaming was dealt a potentially fatal blow when Adobe Flash was discontinued. Neopets owner JumpStart Games was eventually able to recover.
This is far from the first major cyber attack to occur in a major game recently. Bandai Namco, the publisher behind Fire Ring, was recently hacked by the infamous group BlackCat, demanding a payout in the millions. The ransomware group has reportedly stepped up its efforts in recent years, attacking with more frequency and moving beyond video games, targeting government entities and schools.
It is not only groups such as BlackCat that increase cyber attacks, and not all attackers seek financial gain. Last year, a user of Nvidia GeForce Now was able to access several unreleased titles from the cloud gaming service. Twitch was also the victim of a data breach in 2021, with more than 100GB of information leaked to 4chan – the leaker which sought to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space”.
Source: Twitter, JellyNeo
