Lately, gaming websites are more targeted by hackers

Jan 16, 2012 12:49 GMT  ·  By

A couple of gaming websites, Catalyst-Gaming (catalystgaming.net) from Northern Tasmania and Game (game.co.uk) from the United Kingdom, are the latest victims of hackers.

As security solutions providers predicted, gamer communities are becoming a tempting target to hackers and their operations, especially since many gaming websites offer their customers the opportunity to purchase virtual items and bonuses using credit cards.

This isn’t the case in this scenario, but these incidents come to show how exposed gaming websites are.

Usernames, email addresses and password hashes were leaked from Catalyst Gaming, but from Game, a website that commercializes consoles, games and hardware components, the hackers managed to obtain email addresses and passwords in clear-text.

The latter site contained a shell injection vulnerability that allowed the hackers to access its databases and expose their customers.

Users who own accounts on the aforementioned sites are recommended to immediately change their passwords.

Update. Since the data allegedly leaked from Game.co.uk may not be accurate, we have contacted both the website and the alleged hacker to find out more details. Stay tuned!

Update 2. Game.co.uk released an official statement to deny the fact that their systems were breached. Anna-Marie Mason, GAME spokesperson said:

At GAME we guard our customers' details very carefully. 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