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Multiplay Servers Breached, Users Asked to Change Password

Email sent out of an abundance of caution

Mar 30, 2015 14:10 GMT  ·  By
No evidence found that account details were affected
   No evidence found that account details were affected

Some of the systems administered by Multiplay, a company bent on hosting gaming events, have been accessed by an unauthorized entity, which may have resulted in exposing users’ account details.

The company is behind Insomnia, one of the largest LAN gaming festivals in the UK, which last year gathered more than 67,000 players. Its activity spans over more than 17 years and includes online services, as well as systems development.

No financial information exposed

Users with Multiplay accounts received last week an email advising them to change the passwords for their accounts, after the company identified intrusions on more than one server.

This is more of a precaution as passwords have been salted and are stored in hashed form. Salting and hashing consists in generating random characters and appending them to the password before creating their hash values. The information stored this way prevents access to the plaintext data.

In the letter sent to its users, Multiplay says that it did not find any evidence that profile information had been accessed. Also, the accounts do not store any payment details, so there is no risk of financial damage associated with the incident.

“Although the passwords we store are encrypted, as an added security measure we recommend you change your Multiplay account password,” the letter reads.

Another advice included is to change the credentials for any other online accounts that are accessed with the same password or a similar one.

Company confirms cyber-attack

Some users were suspicious of the message and believed they may have been targeted for a phishing attack, especially since the email contained a link to resetting the password.

However, the company confirmed the legitimacy of the message in a tweet on Friday and advised all recipients to follow the enclosed instructions.

No details have been provided with regards to the origin or motive of the attack, but eTeknix suspects that the event is a protest from some disgruntled gamers against Multiplay’s acquisition at the beginning of this month by UK retailer GAME for £20 million ($29.5 / €27.3 million).