Retail

Update: GAME refutes hacking claims - says no breach took place

Mon 16 Jan 2012 3:03pm GMT / 10:03am EST / 7:03am PST
RetailSecurity

Retailer also says all customer details are "well protected"

UPDATE

GAME has responded to reports that its customer data had been compromised, denying that any security breach has taken place and refuting the claim that unhashed passwords and emails are stored in its databases.

GAME spokesperson Anna Marie Mason issued a statement which denies the rumours of the breach in no uncertain terms, reassuring users that details are safe.

"At GAME we guard our customers' details very carefully," reads the statement.

"We have thoroughly investigated the hacking claims made today by the website Pastebin, and can confirm that they are entirely false. The published email addresses are not registered users of GAME.co.uk, and there has been no breach of our database security.

"We would like to assure all our customers that their details are well protected, and advise anyone who has any questions to contact our customer services team via the website, our Facebook page or Twitter account."

Original Story

GAME's UK site has reportedly been hacked, with the offenders obtaining access to a database which revealed unhashed passwords and email addresses.

Reported via Softpedia, the attack is said to have exploited a shell injection vulnerability to breach the database.

At a similar time, Tasmanian game retailer Catalyst Gaming had its defenses bypassed, with the stolen information being posted at Pastebin shortly afterwards. Usernames and emails were printed verbatim, but passwords for the site were hashed.

Anyone with an account at either site is recommended to change their login details immediately and revise any passwords which are used elsewhere.

GAME has been approached for a statement regarding the attack.

12 Comments

Jason Pullara
Podcaster

I think GAME ought to be approached for a statement on why in the living fuck were their passwords not salted and hashed.

Posted:A year ago

#1

There is absolutely no excuse for having plaintext passwords in the database. What a disgrace.

Posted:A year ago

#2

oh dear! but seriously this is a bit of a indefensible non compliant breach of user data

Posted:A year ago

#3

Kingman Cheng
Illustrator and Animator

Oh dear God. : /

Posted:A year ago

#4

Rodney Smith
Developer

Shocking! I've asked for my account to be removed.

Posted:A year ago

#5

Terence Gage
Freelance writer

I've changed my password and deleted my debit card details anyway - hopefully it's not true, but no harm in being careful.

Posted:A year ago

#6

Kingman Cheng
Illustrator and Animator

Yeah I took precautionary measures too Terence. But looks like apparently they weren't hacked.

Posted:A year ago

#7

Sean Warren
Inspector

Imagine that...

Posted:A year ago

#8

People actually register to the Game website? Well I'll be :3

Posted:A year ago

#9

Their prices are as ridiculous online as they are instore, they will be in administration within the next 3 years, just another retailer that's going down the drain.

Edited 1 times. Last edit by James Wilshaw on 17th January 2012 5:25pm

Posted:A year ago

#10

Andrew Jakobs
Lead Programmer

@James Wilshaw: utter BS, their prices are the same as other webshops, I've ordered more than enough from them at low prices which weren't available at other sites at those specified moments.

Even though this SEEMS like a hoax, hackers who do stuff like that and also put stuff like that into the public should be investigated and locked up for the rest of their lives (I even have some other things in mind for morons like that)..

Posted:A year ago

#11

Rodney Smith
Developer

[link url=http://www.game.co.uk/wcsstore/holding_page/game/index.html?storeId=10151
]http://www.game.co.uk/wcsstore/holding_p...[/link]

Maintenance work after a hack that never happened... seems suspicious

Posted:A year ago

#12

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