Codemasters confirms data breach

UK developer Codemasters has today revealed that customer personal data was taken by hackers in an attack on June 3.

The studio has spent the intervening days identifying the scope of the attack and has ascertained that hackers gained access to its main and corporate websites, the Dirt 3 VIP code redemption page, the Codemasters EStore, and its customer database.

As a result, Codemasters believes that customer names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, passwords and order details have been taken. There is no suggestion of passwords being compromised as Codemasters uses external payment systems, so no financial information is stored on its servers.

"On Friday June 3, unauthorised entry was gained to our website," reads an email sent to its users. "As soon as the intrusion was detected, we immediately took codemasters.com and associated web services offline in order to prevent any further intrusion.

"Whilst we do not have confirmation that any of this data was actually downloaded onto an external device, we have to assume that, as access was gained, all of these details were compromised and/or stolen.

"The website will remain offline for the foreseeable future with all traffic re-directed to the Codemasters Facebook page instead. A new website will launch later in the year. We apologise for this incident and regret any inconvenience caused."

This is just the latest in a spate of hacking attacks on companies in the game business: the highest profile attack was of course the one on Sony that saw PSN offline for six weeks, but Nintendo Of America admitted this week that it, too had been targeted.

Codemasters is advising customers to change passwords on other sites, and to be wary of phishing attempts. It invites any customer with lingering concerns to email custservice@codemasters.com.