Earlier this week, several media outlets reported an alleged data breach affecting more than 500,000 online gaming accounts.
The reports, which video game publisher Activision has since said are inaccurate, claimed that Call of Duty players’ credentials had been leaked.
By protecting your online gaming accounts, you can be free to focus on enjoying the game. Your gaming account (or accounts) should be well protected with a strong password, ideally one which you don’t re-use on other accounts. You should also turn on two factor authentication if available which will provide you with an extra layer of protection to prevent someone hacking into your account.
Read our guidance on how to enjoy online gaming securely and how to manage passwords for your online services.
Firm caught offside in ransomware attack
ArbiterSports, which holds data of around 540,000 referees, league officials and school representatives, has admitted they were victims of a ransomware attack.
The sports company are the official software provider for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the US. Despite detecting and blocking the attempt to encrypt ArbiterSports’ files, the hackers still managed to gain access and acquire a copy of backup files. The files contained sensitive information about members including usernames, passwords, email addresses and social security numbers.
In return for the ransom being paid the hackers said they would delete the stolen files. ArbiterSports confirmed they paid the ransom and received assurances from the hackers that the files had been deleted.
Backing up data is an important aspect of protecting against ransomware attacks. If you believe you have fallen victim to a ransomware attack, please refer to our list of urgent steps to take. Read our complete guide on how to defend your organisation against ransomware attacks.
