Hacker claims to have accessed Words With Friends 216 million player database
We all might want to have a word with this "friend" who could have accessed our data without permission.
If you're a regular Words With Friends player, you might want to go ahead and change your password.
It turns out that a Pakistani hacker may very well have breached the game, accessing around a billion user records compiled from around 45 different online services earlier this year. The reports haven't yet been verified, but according to The Hacker News, the individual who may be responsible goes by the name of Gnosticdata.
As far as thise affected, the breach would supposedly include all Android and iOS players who have played Words With Friends before September 2, 2019. So, just thinking about it that's...basically everyone? The hacker supposedly had access to passwords, names, email addresses, login IDs, Facebook IDs, phone numbers, and more.
This would be a massively serious breach, based on the number of players involved. Zynga did, at least, acknowledged the data breach back via its support site on September 12, but the news didn't get around to everyone until just recently. Zynga did not reveal the total number of people affected, however.
Zynga has taken measures to notify users of any suspicious logins, but the company states that it has "no indication" that passwords were collected as part of the "hack." However, it is working with third-party forensics firms in an attempt to figure out what happened here, in addition to having contacted law enforcement.
"Our current understanding is that no financial information was accessed. However, we understand that account information for certain players of certain Zynga games may have been accessed," said Zynga in a recent statement. "As a precaution, we have taken steps to protect certain players’ accounts from invalid logins, including but not limited to where we believe that passwords may have been accessed. Zynga has begun the process of sending individual notices to players where we believe that notice is required." So in a nutshell, change your password.
"The security of our player data is extremely important to us. We have worked hard to address this matter and remain committed to supporting our community."
Again, change your password. And if you used the same one you used in Words with Friends elsewhere, change those too. Better to be safe than sorry.
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Shacknews
replyBrittany Vincent posted a new article, Hacker claims to have accessed Words With Friends 216 million player database
