Japanese publisher Koei Tecmo announced over the Christmas holidays that some personal data of 65,000 users of its English-language website had been hacked, causing the company to take its US and UK websites offline for the time being.
“Within the website operated by KTE, the ‘Forum’ page and registered user information (approximately 65,000 entries) have been determined based on the data that may have been breached,” announced Koei Tecmo in a press release first reported on December 25 through BleepingComputer. “The user data that may have been leaked by hacking is considered the (optional) account names and associated password (encrypted) and / or registered email address.”
The publisher – responsible for it Dynasty warrior series, including several Musou spin-offs and the recent one Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity-wrote that the hack appeared to be isolated on the forum pages and contained no credit card information. Koei Tecmo added that it does not yet know who launched the cyber attack and believes that the leaks are unlikely to be related to a ransomware attack.
In addition to reporting the data breach to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the publisher has also temporarily closed the US and UK websites. “Due to the possibility of an external cyber attack on this website, it has been temporarily closed while we investigate the issue,” reads a single line of text that appears when you try to visit the website. Koei Tecmo America website.
Unlike the recent comprehensive cyber attack on Capcom in November, which affected business information such as sales reports and development documents, this data breach appears to be isolated to player emails and passwords.
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“Koei Tecmo apologizes for the concern and inconvenience this may cause to its customers and business partners,” the publisher wrote in its press release. “For individuals whose email addresses have been leaked, Koei Tecmo is committed to taking appropriate action and acting in good faith thereafter.”
Koei Tecmo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Correction: The message has been updated to reflect that news of the data breach was first reported by the data security website BleepingComputer.