How do you spell "data breach?" - Zynga data breach exposes 200 million Words with Friends players

[ZacoAttaco]

SOURCES: 

https://www.cnet.com/news/words-with-friends-hack-reportedly-exposes-data-of-more-than-200m-players/

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3173791/stop-using-sha1-it-s-now-completely-unsafe.html

 

Another day, another large organisation suffers a massive data breach. This time it's our friends at Zynga.

 

A hacker name Gnosticplayers has taken responsibility saying they stole data from 218 million Words with Friends player accounts in September 2019.

 

Per CNET:

Quote

The hacker accessed a database that included data from Android and iOS players who installed the game before Sept. 2, according to the report.

 

Publisher Zynga did confirm there was a data breach of account login info for Draw Something and Words with Friends players on Sept. 12. The game company says law enforcement was notified and there is an ongoing investigation into the hack. On its support announcements page, Zynga says it took steps to protect accounts from invalid logins, and some users were required to change their passwords. 

Per HaveIBeenPwned:

Quote

In September 2019, game developer Zynga (the creator of Words with Friends) suffered a data breach. The incident exposed 173M unique email addresses alongside usernames and passwords stored as salted SHA-1 hashes.

HIBP also ranks the Zynga data breach in the top 10 largest data breaches it's come across. I'd recommend anyone who isn't using HaveIBeenPwned to start, it's a great way to learn about what data breaches are occuring across the world and if you are personally affected.

 

My Thoughts: I don't know what to say really. These types of breaches are becoming all too common place.  SHA-1 is an older standard of encryption and shouldn't be used nowadays. At least Zynga recommended 'some users...to change their passwords'. It seems like things are bound to get worse before they get better.

[dizmo]

I should find the hackers. Maybe they can tell me my username and password I've long since forgotten.

 

[ZacoAttaco]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

I should find the hackers. Maybe they can tell me my username and password I've long since forgotten.

Well, when you look at it that way, they're doing a public service.

[GoldenLag]

17 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I should find the hackers.

"I don't know who you are, but i know what i want. If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired through tons of forum posts. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you give me my account details now that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you and I will get my account details back."

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, ZacoAttaco said:

SOURCES: 

https://www.cnet.com/news/words-with-friends-hack-reportedly-exposes-data-of-more-than-200m-players/

That news article is from 1st October. This has already been posted.