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The War Z Taken Offline Following Hack
An anonymous reader writes with this tidbit from Net Security: "Players of The War Z, a first-person zombie survival game, have been notified of a breach of the developer's forum and game databases and the theft of user data contained in them. 'The data accessed included email addresses used to log-in to the forum, forum passwords which we encrypt, email addresses used to log-in to the game, encrypted game passwords as well as in-game character names and the IP addresses from which players log-in to the forum and to the game,' the developer explained ...There is no mention of what encryption algorithm they use to encrypt the passwords, nor whether they are 'salted,' so their advice to users about immediately changing the passwords they used for the forum and the account is more than fitting."
I hope they used better encryption than ROT26.
My passwords were infected with the zombie virus anyway.
I'm not sure whether the crackers or the developers are more deserving to be brought along for this ride:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAa14HpM-1o
...promised an unhackable infrastructure. Where they went on and on last october about how much security they have and how people can't hack in TWZ? I do remember that as I was paying $19.99 for silver founders pack and access to the game. Within a month there were aim-bots and wall-hacks and now, their entire database is compromised. This company is a joke.
This should have run its course by now, shouldn't it? It seems that the zombie craze is lasting even longer than the vampire craze we had a few years ago.
I'm betting on space aliens for the next one.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I'm sure it was well intentioned researchers who just wanted to show that their security was flawed. These hackers should be celebrated! /s
This was posted on 4chan /v/ about a week ago, along with mega.co.nz links to the leaked databases and the server software, everyone thought it was an early April fools day joke.
into the subject box!
> "forum passwords which we encrypt, email addresses used to log-in to the game, encrypted game passwords"
"We feel confident they will not successfully crack the encryption because zombies are mindless."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Another zombie-survival-themed game. Serves them right.
They've had their 15 minutes!!! Stop with the zombies! Let's please leave them with the Donald Trumps and spinners of history.
Considering the attitude those game devs have, this was just a hack waiting to happen. If only they'd just shut down and give everyone their wasted money back.
All two of them threatened with quitting the game for good.
It should be noted that while the website forums were taken down after this breach last week, the game itself has remained online aside from some downtime on Sunday night. I've been seeing a lot of articles lately that just say War Z is offline but that's not very accurate. I'll admit I pre-ordered this game back in October when I thought the idea had a lot of potential, and didn't realize this was the infamous developer behind Big Rigs. I've had fun with friends and the drama has been bonus entertainment every step of the way, but frankly I hope the hackers just release the game files and someone with a little more ability and creativity takes over. Alternatively, sell it to that Korean company that just buys bankrupt studios' properties and makes them Free2Play.
This game should be deleted from history, it has been nothing but a morbidly hilarious downward spiral of bad choices and horrible development.
At the rate information is stolen, wouldn't this be safer?
Just a thought, but, I'm a bit amazed at the large scope of this. That's a lot of data that's just disappeared and can be sold on the black market. And by black market I mean, ya know, the market. Now, reading a little of the history of this company (even Wiki has an alarming review of the game and the company) and especially the companies leaders one wonders if perhaps they just didn't give a damn. Or... something else.
Reminds me of the economist/criminologist William Black, who said that the best way to rob a bank is to be a banker.
This is no surprise. The game was a pit for spawn camping trolls, aim bots, and everything bots anyway. When confronted with this via their forums they just ban your account and you loose your cash with a snobbish troll post calling you a troll basically. Just get the Arma mod DayZ or wait for the stand alone.
""Players of The War Z, a first-person zombie survival game, have been notified of a breach of the developer's forum and game databases and the theft of user data contained in them."
Bullshit. The only way to be "notified" is to try and login to the forums. No other way. Game simply refuses to run. So BULLSHIT. It it wasn't for the 3rd party stories in the news most of us would have no idea.
I see they did leave up everything on their web site except the forums. They did not bother to remove access to buying the game. What bunch of losers this these people have turned out to be. I would half bet it is one of there on ruskies that hacked it all for customer data.