WTF - Epic Games Forums Hacked

[Tristicus]

Dear Me,

Our Epic Games web sites and forums were recently hacked. After some downtime, they're back up and running now.

The hackers may have obtained the email addresses and encrypted passwords of forum users. Plaintext passwords weren't revealed, but it's possible that those passwords could be obtained by a brute-force attack on the encrypted passwords. Therefore, we have reset all passwords. Your new password at the bottom of this message.

The Unreal Developer Network (UDN) hasn't been compromised. Thankfully, none of our web sites ask for, or store, credit card information or other financial data.

We're sorry for the inconvenience, and appreciate everyone's patience as we wrestle our servers back under control.

Tim Sweeney
Founder, Epic Games Inc

What the hell is up with this? Codemasters, now Epic? Are hackers trying to capitalize off of the Sony thing or what?

 

[busydude]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2170415

Probably something big going on.

 

[Tristicus]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2170415

Okay?

 

[Red Storm]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2170415

Probably something big going on.

Wow. I was expecting endless jokes from post number 2 and on in that thread, but it actually turned out to be true. Anand's Tech people owe him thanks!

 

[ParadoxDenmark]

The plot thickens.

 

[Red Hawk]

Ok, who's next? BioWare? Blizzard?

 

[postmortemIA]

Ok, who's next? BioWare? Blizzard?

My guess any forum with large enough user base. They are not after these tech sites; they are after fact that most people use same email & password on multiple sites; some of them are accounts associated with $. Even encrypted passwords are not safe, mapping between encrypted value and simple passwords are widely known.

In other words,
1. make passwords unique for every site
2. construct passwords with letters, symbols like !@#$%^&* and some numbers

 

[Anubis]

humm if Blizz gets hacked ill start to worry as they are huge. wounder of OT.com got targeted

 

[Ross Ridge]

It's probably an issue specific to the vBulletin forum software that both Epic Games and AnandTech run. Blizzard and BioWare seem to use different software for their forums.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

This is a small bit of karma for destroying the Unreal Tournament franchise by consolizing UT3.

 

[you2]

Bingo; cookie cutter hackers.

It's probably an issue specific to the vBulletin forum software that both Epic Games and AnandTech run. Blizzard and BioWare seem to use different software for their forums.

 

[Aikouka]

Gearbox said that I'd have to change my password when I log back in as well... not sure if they're tied to Epic or anything, but I'm pretty sure they're separate.

EDIT:

Dear Gearbox Community Member,

As the Gearbox community continues to expand and become more valuable with great features such as the Duke Nukem Forever First Access Club, Gearbox has implemented new security policies and protocols. The first step of this is a simple password change for your community account which you’ll be required to do the next time you logon to the Gearbox Forums.

Make sure to keep an eye on the Gearbox Community for even more great stuff coming your way in 2011 and beyond!

-Gearbox Software

 

[Glitchny]

It's probably an issue specific to the vBulletin forum software that both Epic Games and AnandTech run. Blizzard and BioWare seem to use different software for their forums.

Yep most likely just a known exploit and they are trying to hit the big forums that use it.

I imagine Blizz gets hack attempts directed at it daily due to how many users they have.

 

[Raduque]

This is a small bit of karma for destroying the Unreal Tournament franchise by consolizing UT3.

Oh, do shut up.

 

[soccerballtux]

This is a small bit of karma for destroying the Unreal Tournament franchise by consolizing UT3.

+1

 

[Modular]

Yep most likely just a known exploit and they are trying to hit the big forums that use it.

I imagine Blizz gets hack attempts directed at it daily due to how many users they have.

And the fact that most people give Blizzard their credit card info, home address, name, etc. as was "required" when buying one of their games. Not me...

 

[imaheadcase]

Blizzard problem is the spam email hackers who try to get you to give account info. lol

I swear my "throw away" email accounts, i check a couple times a year..maybe 200+ emails claiming to be from blizzard are in spam folder trying to get me to give info.

They are more successful at that i bet than actual hacking.